Oh hi old friends! I decided to revive the old blog today to share with you a little update on running and to talk about my Fall marathon! I remember vividly in August 2013 being at dinner with two friends and swearing that I would NOT run a marathon in 2014. I felt like I would fulfill all my marathon dreams after finally getting to run NYCM in November. When I got ITBS early last September I knew that my PR dreams for NYCM were quickly diminishing and I'd be lucky if I even got to the start line at all. As you all know, I did, but it was not the day I had hoped for since I went in on minimal training and 7 weeks of intense physical therapy. Despite being one my favorite days in my four years in NYC, after I was finished I knew that I wanted to give the marathon distance at least one more shot.
I got a taste of the Chicago Marathon after an October trip during marathon weekend last year and it was incredible. I knew that if I wanted to run another marathon it had to be Chicago. There was no doubt that this was the marathon I wanted to run, and nothing else interested me for the fall. Unfortunately, because of its popularity this was the first year it went to a lotto system. I had three close friends who also wanted to run and we were super anxious about us all being able to get in, especially since none of us even knew our chances since we were the very first round of lotto entrants. In the end as luck would have it the lotto worked in our favor and we all got in! I'm so thankful for the girls I'll be traveling with and couldn't do this without their support. So thank you: Katie, Brittany, and Anne. You gals are gems in my life.
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IT'S REAL!
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Celebrating with Brittany and Anne after we registered earlier in the day!
There are a few reasons why this particular marathon is incredibly important to me. I feel like the third time will be the charm. In 2012, I trained my butt off, was incredibly prepared mentally and physically for NYCM... and it was canceled because of Sandy. While Richmond turned out to be an awesome day time wise, going into a course completely blind and with no spectators was hard. In 2013, I wasn't able to train the way I would have liked, but still had such a fun day and getting to see sooo many of my friends cheering was awesome. So this is my 3rd go around with the marathon distance and I hope for a strong and injury free training cycle, and to run the race I'm actually signed up to run :) I hope on October 12th I'm able to celebrate 16 weeks of hard work with a new PR! I'm so excited to get going with this training cycle (starts June 23rd) and hopefully run a smart and strong race in 5 short months!
I had my last long run for the Brooklyn Half (more on this later this week) today and while on those two solo loops of Prospect Park I had a while to think about my upcoming goals and even came up with my mantra for this training/race cycle: Don't Be Afraid. Don't be afraid to get out of my comfort zone. Don't be afraid to have some hard days. Don't be afraid by the daunting long runs every Saturday morning. Don't be afraid to run some hills. Don't be afraid to be open about my goals and ask people to keep me accountable to those goals. Don't be afraid. One foot in front of the other, one mile at a time.
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