I completed my first half marathon!

vespiquenn · September 2016

I did something I never thought I could, especially after the last few months. A little back story: I have never ever ever eveeer enjoyed running. In school, I avoided it like the plague. But as a teacher, I reluctantly agreed to help out with our running club last school year with a 5k race at the end. I fell in love. So I started training for my half back in May and was following a structured plan because I had several months of running club training. I made it to a bit over 6mi for long runs. However, after a 5k on July 4th, my knee became painful. It eventually became when I was unable to walk and became sidelined completely. So I threw away any idea of running the half marathon.

Well, after moping for over a month, I decided that I might not be able to run it, but I can walk it. If knee pain arose, I would just pull myself out of the race. So I went in with the idea that even a 16 minute pace would work, the course was open 7 hours after all for the full marathon.

Fast forward to today. I decided to do a run/walk method, until I hit the wall at 11 miles. Then it was mostly walking. But I still finished with a 13:43 pace and managed to hit my goal of under 3 hours completion.

Although I'm sore beyond belief, I'm glad I proved to myself that I could do it. Now to enjoy a hamburger and beer.