I started out 2013 with the goal to run a 10K in the spring and a half marathon in the fall. I didn't have specific races in mind yet, but I felt a sense of urgency to reach those goals like nothing I had experienced before.
In the meantime I was also pursuing other dreams. I found myself singing more and more and finding that I had improved over the years. Dave Gates talked me into auditioning for the ACT I musical, "The Drowsy Chaperone," and I was given the part of the chaperone! What an adventure that was going to be!
I was reading several of the threads on C25K, and one of them was by mrsphs aka Kristi. In 2012 she ran the Dam to Dam 20K in Des Moines. Her thread followed her through her training as her long runs progressively got longer and longer from 6 to 7 to 8 to 9... all the way up to 13.1! Her family was supportive. Even her neighbors were helping her achieve her dream. But she had to do the work. She was dedicated to the goal, so much so that she even had an ice bath after one of her long runs. Her thread was inspiring, and I read it more than once.
On Saturday Jan. 12th I announced on C25K that I was committing to the Dam to Dam 20K race on June 1. Hold the horses! That's several months earlier than "in the fall" so what the heck was I thinking? And I had a lead in a musical too? Like I said... I went crazy in 2012, and there really was no going back.
Right away I had some setbacks or challenges. I broke my toe in February right before I traveled to St. Louis to go to my oldest brother's funeral. It was an emotional roller coaster. 'Nuff said on that.
On my way home I picked up our new bundle of joy, a golden retriever puppy! She was born on 12/12/12, so we named her Maya. I fell in love instantly.
There was also travel to Japan twice for work where I did some of my training runs. I really enjoyed running there.
The long runs were going up mile by mile, and the 8 and 9 mile runs went great. But the 10 mile run got postponed when I got very sick. I was starting to get scared of the double digit runs in my training plan. It didn't help my fear when I started having some difficult "sucky" runs. But then I learned a lesson from the Mighty Mish that will stick with me. "Embrace the suck."
"Every once in a while I have a run where all of the stars align and I run along grinning like an idiot and thinking I could go on forever. More often I have runs that go just fine, nothing out of the ordinary. Then there are the bad ones. It is during those bad ones that you learn something.... I'm learning that I can keep going even when I want nothing more than to stop."
I ran my first 10 mile run on Sunday, May 5, 2013. It was a beautiful day and the run went very well. There were difficult parts, but I pushed through them, and when my Garmin turned to 10 miles, it was while I was crossing a bridge where people were fishing. One lady was looking right at me as I hit the Garmin button, and I smiled and told her that I just finished 10 miles. It was a good moment.
My 11 mile run was planned for Mother's Day, and that had me even more nervous because of the Mother's Day curse. The year before I had dislocated my finger, and before that my niece was in a horrible accident and almost died, and before that my oldest son and husband got into a big fight. But the Mother's Day curse was broken when I ran not 11, but 12 miles. It was one of the best runs I can remember.
"I decided at mile 5 that I felt so good that I would do 12, but not 12.4 so that distance would be saved for the D2D. The run today went better than I could have imagined or hoped! Even though it was really windy (18mph), I was able to have an average pace of 11:42, and my pulse stayed steady and low enough that I didn't take walk breaks! Yes, let me repeat that. I didn't take walk breaks during my 12 mile long run!!! I did have to stop for a crosswalk stoplight during mile 3 and again during mile 4, and I made a brief stop at my car to drop off my jacket and to grab some water, but that was it! I even kept running when I ate my shotblocks, and I made a point of drinking water when at the stoplights. This is so incredibly encouraging to me. Not meaning to be melodramatic, but this was a run that I''ll remember forever."
Shortly after that run I signed up for my first half marathon to be in Cocoa, FL. The Space Coast Half Marathon was kicking off the Big Bang Series for 5 years of space shuttle medals. The first year for the Columbia space shuttle. It just seemed appropriate for that to be my first HM since I've always been a space case and interned at KSC. So frequent flyer miles and Hilton Honors were used for my travel (and Gary's and Luke's), and it was set.
So now for the taper to the Dam to Dam!
No comments:
Post a Comment