The Road to Half Marathon
This past Sunday, I completed my first half-marathon race. It was an overwhelming success by my standards: good weather, good friends, good running. I have been training for this run since May of this year and I'm pleased with how it all went down. I decided to write a log as I trained. I kept going strong, logging entries after runs, all the way up to September. I'll include the entirety of the log, some 5000 words, in a collapsible section below the race-day recap.
The Race
For me, the race began the night before when nine of us got together to have dinner. Several of my friends had joined a running club back in the spring and had encouraged me to join the runs (and eventually, to sign up for the half-marathon). I wouldn't have signed up without this encouragement (and partially the jealousy of missing out). Anyway, I've never been one for throwing parties, but having these friends over for dinner to celebrate our training (and to eat a lot of carbs) was such an obvious delight for me that we set to preparing the meal and making room for 9 people with glee.
For dinner, we had: vegan pasta, spaghetti, a kale salad (with hunks of baguette croutons), 4 homemade pizzas, a homemade focaccia, and a bread cake. We ate, and we ate, and we ate.
Jeff, my oldest friend (and newest running mentor) stayed the night, visiting from out of town. We cleaned up after dinner and made our plan for the morning. Up at 5, out the door at 6:30. We both slept well enough, and got moving. I'm still getting used to how dark it is at this time of year. We made oats and then went for a walk in hopes of getting our stomach's moving. It was as dark as the middle of the night as our footsteps echoed around the block.
We got back and got on our bikes and made our way down to Queen and University. It was fairly empty at 6:45 in the morning, compared to the absolute swarms of people who would show up in the next hour. We dropped off our bags, and went looking for the washrooms. The line-up for the main washrooms was unbelievably long, so we set off jogging to try to find an alternative. Just around the corner on Armoury st. we found what we were looking for. We stretched and warmed up.
Jeff and I set off to find our corrals. Jeff would be in the very first—aiming to be his personal best of 1:23:58(!). We hugged and wished each other good luck; I knew the race would be emotional for me at times, including at that moment—knowing the ambitions we had for ourselves. For me, Jeff had donated his time and advice generously, helping me prepare the way for the first time training for anything, and my first actual race.
I found my way to my corral, wandering through hordes of people, unsure of where I was supposed to be. Eventually I found the blue corral, got in and waited. It was at least 30 minutes between Jeff starting and my corral starting. I listened to music and tried to keep warm.
The race started off slow for me. I was trying a new feature on my Garmin running watch Jeff had showed me — a feature call Pace Pro that provides kilometer-by-kilometer pacing strategies. Unfortunately, using this new-to-me feature meant that my watch seemed computationally overloaded—it couldn't play music at the same time as offering pacing instructions (which, writing this down now, feels absolutely absurd to me that a watch can do any of this stuff).
So, I ran without music, for the first 12 km. The first half of the half was great. It felt insignificant to what would come next. I ambled along between 5:30 and 6:00 per kilometer. I took in the signs of the cheering spectators and didn't feel like I was pushing myself particularly hard. By the time I hit about 8 or 9km I started to feel a bit fatigued—but to my surprise, still fine. The only thing: I had to pee (of course). But I refused to stop and continued on, still taking water/electrolight-drinks passed out by volunteers at every opportunity. At this point, I didn't feel the impact of the cheers, but I did appreciate the brass band on Bathurst!
Eventually, I hit Lakeshore. The sun was bright and on me. I felt some fatigue, but largely fine. I used an energy packet called a "Gu" at 12k. I didn't much feel like eating it, but knew it would probably be for the best. I started to wonder when I'd arrive at the turn-around point to come back along Lakeshore—I watched impressive runners already coming back at high speed. Along Lakeshore were many bushes and trees, but I resisted the temptation.
Before long, I was at 14km. Here something strange happened to me. I think it was the music, which I tried to get working several times, and had finally stuck. I became possessed by a sleeping energy. I sped up. I really sped up. I was jumping up onto the curb to pass people in large swathes. My average pace went from 5:23 at 14km, to 5:07, to 5:00, to 4:54, to 4:32.
At various points during the race, I felt emotional. I couldn't quite cry though, whether for focus, or my brain just going haywire. But I was running high at this point. A few tears leaked out, but I was probably also grinning like an idiot. Suddenly, the cheers from the spectators meant a lot more. I remember locking eyes with a woman giving out high-fives. She pointed fiercely at me, here eyes determined as if to say: you! You're giving me a high five!, I returned the look, and ran by, fulfilling the contract, and speeding up for it.
The crowds of spectators and the sound of cheering got louder and louder as I approached the finish line. I saw my partner and Jeff cheering me on in the very last stretch. I was shocked out of my running reverie. Their cheers meant the world to me. I stopped and gave them both a hug, despite their cries to keep going, keep going!. What's 5 seconds to give a hug to your people — I already knew I was well ahead of my goal—sub 2:00—thanks to my new pal Pace Pro. Everything was just gravy at this point.
The last kilometer got hard, though. Really hard. All of a sudden, I felt like stopping. I had to stop—I had not walked yet, but suddenly it seemed like the safest thing to do. If I saw myself, I'd probably have looked paler than usual (if possible?). I was scared I was going to collapse. I had pushed too hard. My burst of speed had lasted up to the last 200 metres or so of the race—there was no keeping it up. As soon as my feet stopped to walk, I looked up—the finish line was right in front of me.
So, I trotted through to the end.
Perhaps stopping for the hug was part of it — my body came down at that moment, and trying to get it going again was a hard argument to make. Passing through the finish, I took several slow breaths, looking around somewhat frantically for water. I couldn't believe how anxious I felt. I had been on top of the world for the last 20 minutes, but it just hadn't lasted right to the end. This being my first race, I had no idea what kind of state I was putting myself into—I was just going along for the ride.
I ended up fine, in all respects. I found water, I found my friends, and I found some food. I could feel the emotions rising as I approached my partner and Jeff. I hugged them both, and cried a little. Jeff hit a new PB (1:20:31!), and come 98th out of 13,000 or so runners. I had finished sub 2:00. It was a good day. We waited in the sun for the rest of our group. The race was over. We got on our bikes and went home.
Below you can find the full log—things I wrote for the last 4 months while running. This is largely unedited, stream of consciousness. Enjoy!
Click here to continue reading the log...
2024-05-22
There's a huge moon tonight, but I only noticed it toward the end of the run. It's been another sweltering day at the end of May. I had a long day of running around to get prepared for camping, but I'm able to squeeze in another run. This is my second run in my first week of a training course that I signed up for. I found the course through Garmin by way of purchasing a GPS watch with dozens of features, not limited to training courses.
But let me back up some more since this is officially the first entry in the long running log of my journey toward a half marathon race in October. I wish I could capture some of the thoughts that I have while running because my head is in a swirl of so many things that all feel so good: I'm in the moment of trying to keep a steady pace, I'm getting into the music that I'm listening to, I have creative thoughts, I have totally pragmatic planning thoughts. All of it feels welcome. I feel like I can simultaneously write poetry, plan the next week of work, and push myself to go at a pace that I find challenging all at the same time.
And then I come home covered in sweat, down a glass of water, and jump in the shower. Before long, I start to lose some of that high. And here I am trying to write it out before it completely disappears before I go to sleep.
Tonight I grooved out to the same old playlist. Dimed Out by Titus Andronicus always gets me fired up and I feel like I could bend open the bars of a jail cell. Then some Teen Daze came on. I finished off my run listening to Emperor X.
This first week of runs is pretty simple. Run 5 minute warm up, 10 minutes at a steady pace between 6:05ish to 5:45ish, I think. I have a hard time not going faster, especially when the music is good. Tonight's run was smooth. I had some knee pain at the start, but the warm up took care of that, and then before long I was going. I hit a small stumbling block when I stopped after 20 minutes to take a look at a semi-pro baseball game I passed by , finding myself with a cramp after I got going again. I'm not sure where the training plan goes next, but I look forward to pushing into longer runs.
There’s so much I want to write about that I’ve been feeling while running. I want to write about this running watch and how much I already love it, nerd that I am. I want to write about the way music feels while running, about how keeping a steady pace really is the epitome of the cliché it’s a marathon nor a sprint, and so on.
See you next time.
2024-05-28
I've had about four days off from running thanks to a semi-relaxing camping trips (so, so many bugs). I got back yesterday, showered off the smell of smoke, unpacked, made a quick ramen for dinner, cleaned more, and then went for a run with a friend. It was our first time running together, and it was pleasant, save for a car who nearly hit us rolling through a stop sign (I was wearing a very bright headlamp, too). A quick lesson in defensive running. I was at least proud of myself—the dude apologized profusely and I was civil about it.
Running with a friend, and at night, meant compromising pace a little bit. But as I told my pal, friends > pace. I'll use my rest-day runs for this kind of thing. In reality, any other training run will require finding a partner who's pretty much at the same pace as me.
Tonight, I'll run another "easy run", which is 20 minutes at 5:56 - 6:33, bookended by 5 minute warmups.
2024-05-30
Today was the first official "long run" from the Garmin Training Plan that I've been doing for the half marathon. It was set for 50 minutes and within the window of 5:55 to 6:15 or so for my pace. Usually with these runs I want to go much faster and have to keep holding myself back, but with a longer run like this it's actually a pretty good pace for me. Still I struggled to stay in that window, often speeding up when the music was just right.
I also had a nice moment when I was running along Harbord where I saw a large caravan of cyclists, I think parents and children mostly, riding in the bike lane. There were some cops marshalling them so I suppose it was some kind of event, but that coupled with the right song at the right time made me tear up a little bit. I always laugh at myself when I mention that I sometimes cry while running, but something about running just unlocks tiny bits of emotions along with the dopamine. It’s a beautiful thing.
2024-06-05
Another long run in the books. I could have gone for an optional 30 minutes. But today—no, not going to happen. I had to call it at 50 minutes, totalling 10km on the dot. Pretty good for me.
I think my control over my pace is slipping from me. This was supposed to be an easy run. But I was more interested in keeping my pace at the very edge of what the watch was telling me to keep it at (5:40). If I had gone slower I would have probably been able to do the extra 30 minutes.
2024-06-07
Today featured a new type of training run called “stride repeats”. This features running a 10 minute warm up, then intervals of sprinting and jogging. 20 seconds sprinting, 45 seconds cool down. Repeat that 8 times. I had the foresight to bike to a track near my place and run there. I absolutely could not do sprinting intervals on the city streets.
Overall it was simultaneously great and torturous, just my kind of fun, it seems.
2024-06-09
Today I swam in an Olympic pool for the first time with my friend Jeff. Like running, i have recently rediscovered swimming, and am learning to thoroughly enjoy it. It serves as great cross-training and lets my mind wander while focusing on technique (and not drowning).
I usually swim in an 18.5-meter pool, so the jump to 50 meters was significant. It meant more continuous swimming, fewer turns, and less bumping into others. I could just swim and watch my thoughts float by like clouds.
Pacing became more important in the 50-meter pool. Unlike the smaller pool where I can frequently touch the bottom, here I had to manage my energy better. As I swam, I realized how much I struggle with pacing in many things across my life.
On the rare occasions i play tennis, i give it my all on my first few games. Everything after that is sloppy and slow.
I probably hated running as a kid because i started too fast and then struggled along, choking for breath.
At work, i lose the most steam when pull requests linger and go on, forever iterating and not merging.
When i find something new I’m passionate about, i give it 150%, until that energy fizzles out and the best I can do is 50%.
Thoughts like these buoyed up from my mind and floated behind me in my wake. I have been struggling to keep in the predetermined pace window for my runs, chomping at the bit to go faster. It seems this lesson is going to take a while to sink in.
2024-06-11
Not my favourite run. For not the first time, I accidentally advanced through a pre-planned workout on my running watch. This means I lose things like automatically advancing through stages (warm up, pace A, pace B, cool down etc), but also I lose the audio cues telling me when I’m going too fast / slow (let me take a second to marvel at how cool that is…).
Anyway, I was a bit frustrated because it was my fiddling with the watch, trying to turn on it’s flash light (yes, it has a flashlight, yes, it is useful, and yes, I am a nerd) and accidentally advancing the workout.
Anyway.
Today was supposed to be a "progressive run". Two main stages, one around 5:30 for 20 minutes and another at 4:30 at 10 minutes. I was feeling a bit nervous I wouldn’t be able to keep up the 4:30 for 10 minutes. But, I surprised myself and pulled it off, and felt pretty great, actually.
So yeah, what am I complaining about?
2024-06-15
Today's run was called a "goal pace run". The idea being that I was to spend some time running at the pace that I'm hoping to run the entire half marathon at. For me that's about four minutes and 50 seconds, getting my time in the half-marathon down to 1:46. Today I had to run a 15 minutes warm-up, then 15 minutes at my goal pace with an optional five more minutes, and then a 15 minute cooldown. I was able to get to the nearby track in the 15 minute warm-up and then I found I was pushing myself fairly hard to keep the race pace going.
With that said, I thought it would be more torturous . The idea of going that fast for a consistent amount of time made me think of running in middle school when it always felt like I was going too fast and I would often struggle to breathe.
2024-06-18
Heat wave this week in Toronto. Got up at 5:30 to run the track to do Stride Repeats. Nope. Got rained out.
Back to bed (and then rock climbing). Tonight I will try again.
2024-06-21
It's been a long week for running. Most days this week were well over 30, close to 40 with the humidex. That meant I could either get up early and run or run late at night.
On Wednesday I was supposed to do a long run for about 75 minutes and I just had to conk out at just over an hour. It was a little disappointing. Without getting into it too much, I supposedly have IBS[1] and it seems to be flaring up lately.
Tonight's run was an easy run for 45 minutes. After having done a 5x5 workout this morning, I didn't feel like leaving, but I still got outside and it turned out to be a fantastic run. The music was right and I felt like I was just falling forward the whole time in the best way possible. I was also able to stay within the suggested page range and got an execution score of 83%. Very satisfying.
When I got home I checked out the Garmin Connect app and looked at my heart rate data for the last 4 weeks since I got the watch. My resting heart rate has dropped by 5-10 BPM, which really surprises me, but I was delighted to see that. Frankly, I don't really know what the direct benefits of this are, but I vaguely know that it's a good thing. I can't really see a downward trend in the spikes of heart rate data from workouts because the workouts vary so much, but it seems like it's trending in the right direction.
2024-06-23
I did another round of speed repeats tonight, although the timing and pacing was different from the last instance. Around 9pm, I ran to the track for my warm-up and then I hit the speed repeats. Today, I had to run for five minutes at around 4:25 and then jog for three minutes. This happened three times and then it switched over to a set of six where I would run for 30 seconds at 4:20 and then jog. Then I ran home.
It's wild to sum up tonight's run like in a few sentences. It did not feel like a few sentences in the running world. I was against a heavy headwind on one half the track and it was late and I was full of good food from a family gathering. But with that said, I actually managed to stay relatively close to that range and I felt really good.
I might have already said this somewhere in this log, but running at a sub-five minute pace feels like a Herculean task. To do it for more than five minutes at intervals, say to do it for 30 minutes straight, let alone a half marathon is hard to imagine. But I have to stop trying to imagine things, and I just have to do them. Again, I'll credit using this running watch for helping me achieve any of this. There isn't really a lot of time to think about what you can or can't do. The watch ticks on, and then it tells you when to start running faster, so you start running faster. When it tells you to slow down, you slow down. I just have to try. And that, I think, is a marvellous thing.
2024-06-27
Last night I did a progression run. This involved a five minute warm-up, 20 minute run at 5:50~/km, and then I had to sustain running at 4:25/km for ten minutes. I was able to keep this up for about 7 minutes before I started lagging down to 4:35 with occasional bursts of speed back into the pace range. It was challenging. This was the first run I had to mark as extremely hard. Still, it was a cool night, and I felt good.
I really need to update my music, though—the watch can load spotify playlists, and my running playlist of 70 songs is starting to get a bit repetitive.
2024-07-01
Today was another day of progress run. However, I ran during the day which made everything a lot harder. I was, however, able to hit an execution score of 73% and was able to do the entire 10 minutes at a pace of 4.25. Difficult? Yes. Done? Yes.
2024-07-07
Today was speed repeats. I thought to myself, hey, this will be easy, when you did your progress run, you ran for 10 minutes at 4:25!. Nah. It was hard. Not sure why. I think part of it was the heat, for sure, but maybe the start/stop of speed/jog makes it harder?
Today, my friend Jeff did his Triathlon that he's been training for for months. Seriously impressive stuff. Jeff is an inspiration for me — I admire his hard work and his humbleness; he's always happy to share what he knows and has answered plenty of questions I have about running (even when I forget the definition of certain terms again and again.) Way to go, pal.
2024-07-13
Today's run was pretty hot. I got out around 9, maybe 9.30, but it was already, well around 24 degrees. I felt pretty good though. The plan today was to run for an hour at about 5.30 to 6.10, and then after that I was supposed to progress to 10 minutes of around 4.30 and then 5 minutes around 4.10 max, which is pretty fast. I kind of ran out of time and had to skip ahead to be able to say goodbye to a house guest, but in the end it was still a good run. I was pretty pleased to find myself not short of breath in any way. In fact, I was feeling totally calm and able to take full breaths in while running the first hour. If anything, it was the heat that got to me.
2024-07-14
I had an "easy run" today that was terrible. I ran too soon after eating (again) and I was surprised to find that I had to stop more than once to just... take a break. No cramps, no urges to puke, but I just felt gross: super sweaty and my battery was just drained.
2024-07-19
Just completed my first long run in a while. The last two I had to end early, either because of stomach problems or just being too gassed. This run was slated to be 1:35 minutes of running, plus an additional 15 minutes if you're feeling it. It seems that 8 or 9km into a long run, I start to think I could make this into a half, whats another few km? . But now that I so many more stats, I know pretty well what another few km is. In this case, it would have been another 40 minutes.
It was for the best I didn't do it. My watch froze up just before the 1:35 minute window finished. I hit pause at a stoplight and something about that just froze the whole thing. I was frustrated at the idea of losing a tracked run (what a hold collecting data has on me, eh?). I walked the rest of the way home, some five minutes. When I came in, the watch came unstuck, restarted, and launched back into the recording! As a software developer, I'm thinking about whomever built the functionality of saving the current activity before the watch has a firmware panic!
Anyway, the run was good. The first 8km were a breeze. Then I had some knee and ankle pain, which disappeared by 12 or 13. I'm sitting at home now feeling pretty dead tired, having drank five glasses of water (half filled with ice cubes, to be fair) and had a refreshing shower. Now it's off to try a new restaurant and replenish all those burned calories (and more, presumably).
2024-07-21
Today's run was brutal. I took off after a bagel and cream cheese around 12:30 and ran to the track. The plan was to do speed repeats 800 m at around 4.30 and then 400 m at whatever pace needed. I was able to do two repeats before I crashed, nothing was particularly wrong—no pain, no stomach issues— but the prospect of just doing six more repeats was too much. I'd like to blame the heat, a 40km bike ride yesterday, but I also think the pace might just be too fast. I bailed and had to stand in the shade for a minute or two before jog-walking home. I think I might have been in pretty rough shape if I had forced myself to do the whole thing— it still turned out to be 6.3km. If I had been able to do the run, that would have been another 7km, nearly 5 of it at 4:30.
The next speed repeat I will do will be at night, from now. I will probably try dropping the pace by five seconds at the suggestion of my friend (and running mentor), Jeff.
2024-07-24
Two runs in two days; speed repeats yesterday and an easy run today. Yesterday's was sloppy. I had two pieces of pizza that still weren't digested by the time I hit the track. On the bright side, I tried my new running shoes and they feel great.
Tonight's run was minimum 20 minutes. I was AMPED UP. I added new songs to my running playlist and the weather was right. Everything was perfect. I let myself speed up to 5:00/km by the end. In these moments my brain is a field in which flowers blossom rapidly. Ideas, poetry, and good feelings are abound. I'll take it.
2024-07-31
This morning's run was trash. I slept four and a half hours. I was supposed to do a progression run. I had to give up after one or two loops at the track. I think I might have been able to do it, but the nail in the coffin was accidentally hitting the lap button on the Garmin Connect. When you do that, it advances you to the next stage of your run. This is probably my biggest pet peeve of the Garmin, although I haven't looked if there's a way around it. Nonetheless, I came home early. I was sweaty as hell despite not finishing the run, and it still being early in the day. Bummer!
2024-08-02
I did a half today. Well, actually, I learned that 21km (right on the dot), is not a half. 21.0975 is a half marathon. So, when I stopped my running watch right when it hit 21km, it didn't recognize it as a half marathon. I was a bit annoyed—I'd like to be able to see all my half-marathon times, over time, to see how my efforts change. Anyway. I ran it in 2:06:14. Slower than the one I did in May! This surprises me. It's possible that the other app I was using (Outrun) to measure my run was less accurate than the Garmin. It's also possible that I'm saying that because after 10 weeks of training I'd have hoped for a better result.
I think I set my goal pace to be 5:20 for the half in October. I was running around 5:40-6:10 today. Shaving off 20-50 seconds sounds like a big leap, but I think if I push it a bit harder each week I'll get closer to it.
2024-08-13
It's been a while since I've checked in. Tonight's run was incredible. I was supposed to do a 45 minute easy run, but once I put on my (new) kicks, I couldn't stop myself from speeding up. I maintained the upper limit of the suggested pace of 5:30 for the entire run, something I've never done, and my overall average time was 5.25 for 7k. I haven't had a runner's high in a while; this one made me feel so capable, and happy. If felt like my body was giving me confirmation that the self-work I'm doing is going in the right direction, and that my confidence and willingness to be myself are somewhere inside me, locked up, and were revealed by running.
Life is weird.
2024-08-27
Just got back from a race pace run. It wasn't a super long one. Came to about 45 minutes. I was pleased with how it went despite the fact that it is 32 degrees again. The humidity is back.
Right now, I am trying to find the metaphor to describe how I feel about running. In general, it feels more monotonous, but not in a bad way. Whereas in earlier runs in this training, I would have runners highs. I would think of poetry in my mind. I would feel meaningful emotions. Whereas today, I just had to run. It was just my feet hitting the ground and my music in my ears. That's it. Now, I don't expect myself to have meaningful emotions and powerful epiphanies every time I go for a run. But I'm surprised at the diversity in experience I can have while doing this sport. Today's run was about 7.5km. It was a race pace. So that means I spent 15 minutes warming up, 15 minutes running at 4.50 to five, and then 15 minutes cool down. Most of the time, I was just trying to push through the humidity. I managed to do this okay.
Realistically, I can't have huge rushes of endorphins every time I run. And while I want to blame the muggy weather for not having such high highs, I'm also really starting to see training as an ongoing process. There isn't really a summit that you hit and then you're done; where you've arrived. Instead, it's day in, day out. With rest days in between, of course. This is a literal and metaphorical mileage. It's not glamorous. The shine wears off. And then it's just you slapping your feet on a muggy pavement when you'd rather just crawl into bed early, or go do some other hobby.
2024-09-03
Had a great run this morning. The kids are going back to school and it's funny to see that there are cracked dry leaves on the ground already, although the trees are still green. I ran to the track today and did a tempo run. That meant 15 minute warm up and then 20 minutes of running at about 5 minutes a kilometer. Pretty hard but managed to make it 17 or 18 minutes before feeling like garbage. Had to walk for a bit when I finished and then headed home. On the way back I saw three people I knew out and about, and that put a smile on my face.
I'm coming to the end of the 16 week plan that the Garmin watch has provided me. That means I'll need to come up with some kind of plan for myself leading up to the half marathon on October 20th. I feel that I've plateaued over the past few weeks but today I did have a good runners high for the first time in a while — I think I was pushing past the plateau.
2024-09-29
Has it been this long since writing? Life got busy there, for a second. I went away for three weekends in a row, and I haven't run more than 10km in probably 2 weeks. Doesn't feel great. What's more - I haven't even written in this log unless I've just finished a run. Next post will come after doing a 10k, I think. I might be able to squeeze one in now. I have an hour, maybe I should do that instead of playing another game of Risk of Rain...
Ok, I went, and I went fast.
2024-10-06
On Friday, I did my first long run in a while. Went with my pal Sean. We ran 15km. I felt pretty good, save for the massive hill in high park that nearly killed me.
But here's why I felt pretty good. I've sort of tapered off my runs. Prematurely, of course, because the race is in two weeks from today, and I did my first long run in probably two weeks just two days ago. And I went fast. I wasn't entirely surprised by this because a few short runs from this past week have all been fast. The taper is real.
But yeah, the race is in 2 weeks. I haven't felt any anxiety about it. I feel no pressure about doing it a certain way. Well, I'd like to get sub-2 hours. But I'm pretty confident that with a taper + the race day energy that will be possible. As long as I don't start too fast.
2024-10-18
The race is in two days. I biked down to the Enercare center and picked up my and my pal Jeff's bib. Between the seriously beautiful weather today and the prospect of running the half, I felt pretty damn good. I'm not feeling nerves about whether I'll go fast or slow, but if anything, I have a bit of nerves around the logistics - getting to the race, finding where to go.
It's been over 4 months since I started this log. It feels good to see it still going. But the end is coming soon, which is sad and good. I started off strong—I signed up for a 16 week (or was it 18?) week program through my Garmin watch and I think I did every single run (one or maybe two might have slipped by due to some circumstance). I should clarify—yes, everyday that I saw the notification to run, I did. But did I complete every recommended distance for those runs? Nope. I hit the suggested duration maybe about 75% of the time. The runs in the heat of the summer (especially those attempted too soon after a meal) definitely didn't get completed. And then there were the days where I was just too exhausted to finish a run at all, especially when I slept poorly.
What a journey it's been!
The journey also changed dramatically once the program on my watch ended. Suddenly, I was running much less frequently—maybe 2 times a week rather than 4 or even 5 times. In a sense, I feel like I let myself down. I should have either started another program, or just started the one I did a few weeks later so that it would line up with race day. I was really leaning on the watch—if it told me to run, I ran. Once that ended, suddenly I was immediately drawn to cycling more, and climbing instead.
A good lesson.
Anyway, I've got some preparing to do. Tomorrow, all my pals who are running the race are coming over for dinner for a little pre-race meal (and birthday celebration for one of the runners). I am very stoked.
-- end of log --
Footnotes
- I was diagnosed with IBS (is IBS something you diagnose?) several years ago, and it seems to more of a problem lately. I've been trying to sort out my diet / try natural solutions, but running most of all has made me realize how it more negatively impacts my life than I realized. ↩︎