First I feel I should start off with a little back story here. I was the girl in high school that walked the mile and it was not a fast walk either. I wish I could say I had a good reason, but I really did not. Sure, I was diagnosed with authorities in my ankles, and they would occasionally pop when I ran. But knowing what I know now, it was far more the fact that I never pushed myself to do it.
Fast forward to about 4 years ago, I still did not classify myself as a runner. Although by this point I had ran a few miles on my trusty old treadmill during my 30 lb weight loss journey. I had a friend (who mind you just had a baby 6 weeks previous) want to go for a run with me. So, my husband sat with her 3 kids and off we went. She then talked me into a 5K for that weekend, about 4 days after this run we did. She ended up not being able to do the race, she did have a good reason but I still pick on her to this day that she bailed on me lol (You know who you are if you read this and you know I still love you).
After that race, I started running more. I eventually signed up for a few more 5Ks, then did a 10K and a trail run. The trail run was by far my favorite race, I also decided to hike up a mountain. The first attempted we did not get to the top of the mountain, but we were determined so the next spring went back to Montana and reached the top of Mount Brown! It was an amazing feeling and we have really fallen in love with Montana and can see myself living there some day.
Enough side chatter, back to the point at hand my running. I learned a while ago to never say never. So when another one of my friends asked me to do a half marathon with her, my first thought was I need to think about it. I had about two weeks before the next price jump, so I set that as my decision deadline. Truth is, I had been thinking about doing one anyways so this basically gave me the push I needed. I bit the bullet and signed up for the race.
Let the training begin I thought, but I did not train anywhere need what I should have. I ran a few days here and there but nothing consistent. In fact, my longest run was 8 miles which was the weekend before the half marathon, and I did not even run the whole 8 miles.
I was pretty nervous going into the race, I had a rough time goal based on the one 10K I had ran a few years back. I did way better then I ever thought I would. I was able to run about 9.5 miles, stopping only at water stations, which is what I have read is the thing to do anyways. The last 3 miles about, I just kept telling myself everything hurts and I am dying but that is okay. You have run this many miles and you are going to hurt but it does not mean you stop. I kept pushing until I got to the end of the race! I accomplished my first goal which was finish the race! My time was 2:36:14 which I was extremely proud of for my first ever half marathon.
I was not sure if I would run another one, but decided that I was going to do the very same race again in 2020. This time, I made a commitment to myself to actually train for this race. I was doing a work out program when I signed up so I promised once that program was done, I would run 3 days a week and do strength training the other 3 days and have 1 rest day. So far I have stayed on point. I did have to take one week off of the running due to a cold, but that is the beauty I have plenty of time yet.
I am very proud of how on task I am staying with my running days, and now just need to focus on increasing my miles. I live in the midwest so this time of year I have to do most all of my running on my trusty old treadmill. I am very happy that I have that option and so far my free treadmill from 7 years ago is still working for me. Treadmill running is not my favorite and is hard to do some days.
I made today a run day, and I learned something I did not realize before. I did not want to run today so I told myself to do it anyways. I had a mile goal of 3.5 miles, which has been a struggle for me to get that amount lately. So, I told myself I was going to do 3.5 miles, or 45 minutes which ever came first because that was the amount of time I had before I needed to get ready for work. I hit by 3.5 miles right at 45:05, think it was meant to be that I did the 3.5 miles today.
What I learned was this, even when you think your not doing well there is always something to show you how you improved. I was trying not to focus on my mile time or my 5K time because they were not my fastest and it would discourage me. Instead I kept telling myself what I have accomplished, I had run longer intervals then previous runs and I also ran at 5.8 mph at one point which is one of the fastest speeds I have had. I got done and entered my run into the log on my computer, turns out even with slower mile times, I decreased my 3.5 miles from Wednesday by 1 min 21 sec. By not focusing on the time so much I still was able improve! It was such a great feeling and I am excited to see what my run tomorrow will be like.
The biggest take away today is that in every situation there is always something positive you can take away from it and focus on!
And it turns out,
I AM A RUNNER!
Kimberly Van Iperen 