Hi friends!

We have 13 weeks until the WDW Marathon! To celebrate the “halfway” mark in training, I participated in the B.A.A. Half Marathon today. It wasn’t my best race – in fact, it was my worst to date. I’m really disappointed that it’s still quite warm and humid up here in Boston. That definitely threw me off today. Where the heck is fall?! Despite the disappointing performance today, I will not let this affect me mentally for marathon training. For a lesson in humility, here’s what my training week leading up to the race looked like:

Training Update: Week 12 Half Marathon Training

Monday: MyStryde Class. One more strength training and speed workout before race weekend! I got up to 10.6 in sprints this week!!! Now I’d like to be more consistently fast for the duration of the class. I know I will get there. I just have to push!

Tuesday: 4 miles. Fastest yet on this course- my last two miles were in the 8:00s! Wow, I am READY for the half marathon.

Wednesday: Rest. I had a work event this night so it was great to have a rest day.

Thursday: 2 miles. A FAST two miles in the 8:00s! And off to the B.A.A. Half Marathon packet pick-up at the Boston Adidas RunBase followed by a shopping spree at Marathon Sports (treating myself). Feeling great.

Friday: Rest. “Why is it still saying it is going to be humid on Sunday?”

Saturday: Rest. “It’s almost mid-October, why is it still humid out!?”

Sunday: 13.1 B.A.A. Half Marathon. “This is going to be a great day! I was so fast this week, I know I’m going to get a PR.” The race began and ended in Franklin Park, Jamaica Plan. This park contains golf courses, scenic rolling fields outlined by big oak trees, and even a zoo. I arrived just in time to see a beautiful pink sunrise and was feeling ready to go. I had trained hard for this race and was ready to celebrate!

With a fast field of runners, I felt a little intimidated but ready to run. When we set off I heard someone say the course would be “rolling hills.” Gulp.

The first five miles were great. Too great in fact. I went out too fast. I was hitting high 9:00s and 10:00s. I also wasn’t good about hitting the early hydration stations. By the turnaround, I was feeling bogged down. And then it really started- the “rolling hills.” Boy these hills were like never-ending corkscrews. With the humidity my legs and arms felt like lead. And at one point my entire face felt swollen! I had to give up my dream of a PR when I hit Mile 7 and really bonked.

This is the only other photo I took during the race. It was humid, I was tired, then it poured, and I didn’t want to risk my phone drowning!

I wanted so badly to quit. But I had to keep going. I alternated run/walking for the rest of the race. It felt long, arduous, and never-ending. The course was awful. It was one big uphill, there was no on-course race entertainment, few spectators, and not much to look at. Twists and turns made every half mile heartbreaking and I just wanted to be DONE. By the time I hit Mile 12 I didn’t even care we were going through the zoo. “A giraffe- oh that’s nice. I’d like to be done with this race now.”

By the time I finished the race, it was POURING. I was frustrated with myself. 2:44. My worst time yet, and hopefully ever. But it still beats a DNR! And I earned my half marathon medal AND Distance Medley medal (for running the 5K in April, and the 10K in June.)

I grabbed some water and gatorade and made my way to the shuttle buses to take us back to the nearest orange line T subway station, Forrest Hills. A line of runners and participants stood in a long line while it continued to pour down on us. When I got home, I showered, ate a late lunch, and here we are.

What I learned from today: 

–Don’t go out too fast: I should’ve known, but I hit my ideal mile times way too fast. I also should’ve known that this course would be torture and that I should’ve tackled the hills more conservatively.

-Stay hydrated and make your fuel more accessible to grab: fighting with a jolly rancher on mile 3 wasn’t great, and I was spitting out pieces of wrapper.

–This will not dictate the rest of my training. I repeat. This will not dictate the rest of my training. The race is over, I finished, and next week, I’ll be out running 13+ miles from now until January. I plan to train conservatively and effectively.

In the meantime, I’m going to lick my wounds and try to put this race out of my head. Someday I will look back on my medals earned from today and say, “that was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I persevered, and lived to tell the tale.”

I hope everyone else who raced today had a better time than I did. And if not, we’ll have more fight in us next time. Because there’s always a next time!

-Gina / Will Run for Disney