Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. ----Inigo Montoya
A couple of months ago, I volunteered to run a half marathon with a friend who was ditched by her friends. This was going to be her first half marathon. Her *friends* had committed to running it with her....then decided they were going to do a race on the following weekend instead.
In my book, that's pretty slimey.
I felt so bad for her that I checked my calendar, the weekend looked good. So, I decided to run it with her.
I did this because I ran my first half marathon alone. I really wished (back then) that I'd had someone to run it with. For those of us who do these types of races regularly, we can forget what it's like the first time you do a new distance. Having someone to ask questions or talk to...someone to help keep you focused or make you laugh while running....all of that....It makes a huge difference.
I signed up.
RIGHT AFTER I DID that, my friend at Master's says "We're still on for RNR Las Vegas, right?"
OH GEESH. I had forgotten that I had committed to running Vegas.
Trying to remember when Vegas was, I replied, "OH YEA! I'm in!"
I rush home to look it up online.
Vegas is 3 weeks after my other half.
Well, the positive is that they aren't the same weekend, right?
The negative is that I really hadn't wanted to run so much this winter. One half marathon is one thing, but two? That's awholenuther thing.
It's not the 13.1 miles. I've been really concerned about getting back into that plugger mentality when I've worked so hard to gain speed at shorter distances.
Of course, Coach has built-in "Anti-Tea-Plugger-Devices" to my training plan. That means, I have mile repeats for breakfast; long runs with shorter stretches of higher intensity running; hill repeats; two-a-days (and yea, I'm talking TWO RUNS in one day); y'know typical "Let's make Tea cry" type of workouts.
And the workouts are NOT easy.
I realized they will NEVER be easy. No matter how fast you get, a mile repeat is a mile repeat. The pace might change but the heart zone doesn't.
Over the past few weeks, I've really given this a lot of thought.
I came up with this:
The November half is for Her.
The December half is for Me.
Why not? The November half is about getting her to finish line. To do that with someone, it's really special. If you've never run a "first" race with someone, it's one of those bucket list items, seriously. This one will be one of my favorites because she has overcome incredible challenges this year. I'm warning you. There will be tears.
That's my plan. I've been taking my running more seriously. I'm more focused on nutrition. I am planning on running Vegas hard. Hopefully, I'll have a decent finish time. Although I'd love a PR, I'm not quite there yet. I have a plan. I'm going to stick with it.
The finish time will be what it will be.
It feels kind of good to be running a half marathon again.
It's been a few years.
