Exactly one month from today will be the Cleveland Half Marathon (sorry no food post this week-lol). I have ran it every year for the past 5, and am again signed up for it this year. But, I must confess, running really got pushed back on the importance scale since I started my business in 09. Last time I participated in a race was this same one last year. Even though it’s only a month away and definitely not enough time to train for a half marathon (13.1 miles), I still plan on doing it. I can’t break my streak. Wednesday night was my first official training run, only 2 miles but I ran the entire 20 minutes and felt really good.
This past weekend while in Florida I decided to go watch the Race for the Cure 10K that was taking place by my parents house. I wanted to see people running . . . running a race. It was just the motivation I needed.
It reminded me how much I love running, and not just running . . . running races. Little background story, right after my 31st b-day in 2005 I decided to run in a 5 person marathon relay here in Akron. I was the most non-athletic person you would ever meet. Definitely wasn’t going to be running if I wasn’t being chased. But for some reason I agreed to this crazy idea. My portion of the race was 3.1 miles (5K). I still remember that day, the anxiety, that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach and fear. Fear that I would not finish. But I did! I remember going back to work that following week and declaring to the entire office “3.1 miles is just far enough, I will never run further, this is MY distance”… well not quite. I was hooked, hooked like a fish! I mean, I got a medal for running 3 miles? wth? What would I get for running 13 or 26 miles? I was going to find out. In San Francisco, they give real Tiffany necklaces um …. yeah, that’s all I needed to hear. Within 6 months I ran a Half Marathon and within a year a Full. I was obsessed, obsessed with the bling and traveling to different places. Since then I completed 7 full marathons, 26 half marathons and over 30 other miscellaneous races. My goal was to run a marathon or half marathon in every state by the time I turned 50, well I managed 12 states to date. I even blogged about running here. Right before the 2009 Akron Marathon I got injured, it was going to be my best race to date, it didn’t happen. Disappointed I took a break, a really long one. But I’m back people, I’m BACK!!! Can’t wait to get the mileage up soon so I can run with some of the best people I know again!
If you see me running, please don’t honk, it drives me bananas.
The picture on the right is 07 Akron Marathon finish (the happiest I’ve ever looked at the end of a marathon, I want that feeling again), and below is my hard earned Bling, minus the Tiffany necklace, that I do have :O)
