It was the start of the summer and within the first three weeks I could feel the angst setting in. After being used to be overbooked, overworked, and over exhausted during the school year, I couldn’t help but feel the anxiety set in, and I began thinking, “I’m not doing enough.” I clearly needed a new challenge in my life but felt stuck on what it should be exactly. My only experience running competitively was in middle school (does that count??), but I always played sports, so I thought, perhaps I’ll try some athletic competition. I settled upon the idea of doing a half-marathon because it seemed challenging but not so far out of reach as a full-fledged marathon. The first person to run a marathon literally ran his heart out and died (I didn’t feel up to that).
At the beginning of my 8-week training I felt exhausted and a little defeated because my mile times were so slow. Before training I don’t think I had ever run above 4 miles before, let alone at any top speed. I started to get faster with every run, and after hitting above 5 miles I could easily see why people subject themselves to the torturous pain of running. It does seem to me that all runners have some strange desire to feel extreme pain because let me tell you, running hurts. There were some days where I just couldn’t conquer the mental barriers to run the seven or eight miles I should have. At the same time, there were some days where I looked forward to running, to that feeling of worrying about nothing else, to that feeling of absolute silence inside my head, and most of all that rush of pride I felt after completing a difficult run. I never thought that I would love running as much as I have come to. Personally, running silences the rush of stress that I feel when I have so much to do. It allows me to have an entire hour to myself with absolutely nothing else to worry or think about.
With only 8 days and counting left to my big event, I feel so ready to finally accomplish this goal. In many ways, running and training has changed my self-perception. I never thought I would be capable of running so much. Running has taught me true endurance in all aspects of my life. There’s always going to be miles where everything in my body is screaming for me to stop, but I don’t quit because I know that I have just a little bit more to give.
I would recommend to anyone to train and do a half-marathon; it is such a rewarding (and doable) experience!