It's For The Medals

Ran a half marathon yesterday. In a sense, that's not that big of a deal since there were 20,000 runners for the full/half/5k run that took place. All 50 states were represented as well as 13 other countries. 64% of the runners were female. Still, I was there, and I completed it. I've been running the halfs between 2:20 and 2:30 which is okay but I realized that I'm not really pushing myself in training, I'm just running. There's another run coming up the beginning of May. This is the run where I set my personal best of 2:16 four years ago. It will also be my 10th half marathon so I'd really like to beat that time and accomplish a new personal best. I'm not that far from that time, but I'd have to knock off about 45 seconds a mile to achieve it. Granted, it's not the exact same course but the mileage will be the same. I have 3 months to train for it, and since I know I can do the distance, I need to work up the speed. This past race, I wore out a bit over miles 10 and 11 so that tells me I need to also pick up the training distance. And, I did beat my previous time on that course by 4 minutes.

This whole running thing came about a few years ago. In my 20's I had run a few 10k races but never really thought about doing anything further and as the years went by, I pretty much stopped running. In 2005 I chose to train for and run a half marathon with my sister Maria and that was the start. I just completed my 9th and have a marathon thrown into the mix. After 2007, I thought I was done with the races and didn't run any in 2008 but for some reason, I missed it. I keep telling myself that it's for the medals but I think in a lot of ways, it's for the accomplishment. It requires training and it requires dedication but the early morning runs calm my soul. The completion of the race doesn't bring on emotions like the first couple did but I still feel the satisfaction of completing something that is pretty special. It's difficult at times getting up and getting going, but I'm usually glad I did.

I'm signed up for 2 more runs this year and then I know I'll be doing at least 1 next year in San Francisco. That will give me the California Dreaming medal. And, since the Surf City run changes medals every year, I suppose I'll do that one again, and when you've done 3 of those in a row, you get special benefits. See, I told you it was for the medals....