I finished my first half marathon without training
Geekyfatgirl
Posts: 164 Member
On Saturday, January 6th, at approximately 6:24am, I crossed the starting line to the Run Disney Half marathon in Orlando Florida.
My husband's mother signed us up back in February of Last year, and I was super excited to start training for it. Unfortunately, much like my health and fitness, I put it all off. That entire year went by, and I kept making up excuses, I continued to fall into bad habits and choose the easy way out. I hated the way I looked, but I just couldn't force myself to make the change and stick with it.
In December, I realized how close this half marathon was coming up, and I hadn't done a single OUNCE of training. It was HAUNTING me. I was having nightmares about not finishing, about letting everyone down, and letting myself down. So, I decided to do a few speed walk intervals for about 45 min, 3 times a week.
That lasted me all of maybe 3 weeks, and then came traveling time. I went to Alabama, came back home, Alabama again, back home again, then headed off to Disney to spend Newyears there, and prepare for the race.
On Thurstay, the rest of his family came in to Disney, and we all felt we weren't ready, and we weren't.
When race day came, it was cold, and we could clearly see we were out of our league, but we were going to try anyway. I was having severe anxiety because I knew my limits, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish this. I get winded easily, and even speed walking hurts. I was in pathetic shape and I was about to embarass myself. Not to mention you had to keep a pace of a 16 min mile, and if you are too slow, they will take you out of the race.
When We crossed the starting line, everyone took off in a jog, and I followed on right behind for about 20 seconds before I got pain in my shins and calves. I wanted to cry! I wasn't even going to make the first mile! I slowed down, I cought my breath and started to walk, and when I could jog, I jogged, and took my time with it. I didn't want to give up, and kept praying and begging to cross at least the half way mark.
Before I even knew it, I was well into mile 4, almost mile 5 and I still pushed through. I wanted to finish this! I kept pushing myself, I took my time sure, but when I could jog, I made myself jog, when I was out of breath, I pushed a little harder and rewarded myself with a break. At mile 8, I wanted to quit, at mile 10, I wanted to quit so much that I was tearing up and crying because I wouldn't allow myself to.
The arch in my left foot began to ache a bit, and my sides were hurting, but I pushed through the pain, and continued to walk quickly. I listened to my music, and finally, found the finish line at the end of the tunnel. I crossed over and shed all my tears. I was hurt, I was aching, but it all went away when I heard them announce my name and finished what I had started.
I know, it was a BAD idea to do that without proper training, and I know I risked injury. Despite that, something inside wanted to complete this, because I was scared of failure. I was terrified, I was nervous, and I wanted so badly to prove to myself I could do it.
Luckily for me, The most damage I had done was two blisters on my toes and some soreness that felt like I did extreme leg day, but after about 3-4 days, I've returned to normal and can walk just fine.
Finishing that half marathon set the pace for this ENTIRE year for me, and my weight loss journey. I know now that I am SO much stronger than I think I am. If I want it BADLY enough, I know that I can dig in further, dig in deeper, and find that inner strength that came through on race day. My average pace was not a 16 min mile, but a round 17-18 min mile. I finished the race in 3:50:55, and I am not ashamed, because I can say "I finished."
My husband's mother signed us up back in February of Last year, and I was super excited to start training for it. Unfortunately, much like my health and fitness, I put it all off. That entire year went by, and I kept making up excuses, I continued to fall into bad habits and choose the easy way out. I hated the way I looked, but I just couldn't force myself to make the change and stick with it.
In December, I realized how close this half marathon was coming up, and I hadn't done a single OUNCE of training. It was HAUNTING me. I was having nightmares about not finishing, about letting everyone down, and letting myself down. So, I decided to do a few speed walk intervals for about 45 min, 3 times a week.
That lasted me all of maybe 3 weeks, and then came traveling time. I went to Alabama, came back home, Alabama again, back home again, then headed off to Disney to spend Newyears there, and prepare for the race.
On Thurstay, the rest of his family came in to Disney, and we all felt we weren't ready, and we weren't.
When race day came, it was cold, and we could clearly see we were out of our league, but we were going to try anyway. I was having severe anxiety because I knew my limits, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish this. I get winded easily, and even speed walking hurts. I was in pathetic shape and I was about to embarass myself. Not to mention you had to keep a pace of a 16 min mile, and if you are too slow, they will take you out of the race.
When We crossed the starting line, everyone took off in a jog, and I followed on right behind for about 20 seconds before I got pain in my shins and calves. I wanted to cry! I wasn't even going to make the first mile! I slowed down, I cought my breath and started to walk, and when I could jog, I jogged, and took my time with it. I didn't want to give up, and kept praying and begging to cross at least the half way mark.
Before I even knew it, I was well into mile 4, almost mile 5 and I still pushed through. I wanted to finish this! I kept pushing myself, I took my time sure, but when I could jog, I made myself jog, when I was out of breath, I pushed a little harder and rewarded myself with a break. At mile 8, I wanted to quit, at mile 10, I wanted to quit so much that I was tearing up and crying because I wouldn't allow myself to.
The arch in my left foot began to ache a bit, and my sides were hurting, but I pushed through the pain, and continued to walk quickly. I listened to my music, and finally, found the finish line at the end of the tunnel. I crossed over and shed all my tears. I was hurt, I was aching, but it all went away when I heard them announce my name and finished what I had started.
I know, it was a BAD idea to do that without proper training, and I know I risked injury. Despite that, something inside wanted to complete this, because I was scared of failure. I was terrified, I was nervous, and I wanted so badly to prove to myself I could do it.
Luckily for me, The most damage I had done was two blisters on my toes and some soreness that felt like I did extreme leg day, but after about 3-4 days, I've returned to normal and can walk just fine.
Finishing that half marathon set the pace for this ENTIRE year for me, and my weight loss journey. I know now that I am SO much stronger than I think I am. If I want it BADLY enough, I know that I can dig in further, dig in deeper, and find that inner strength that came through on race day. My average pace was not a 16 min mile, but a round 17-18 min mile. I finished the race in 3:50:55, and I am not ashamed, because I can say "I finished."
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Replies
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Great way to kick off the year!1
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What a great example of perseverance!! Congratulations to you!1
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OMG!! Good for you!! You just gave me all the inspiration I needed to go ahead and do the 15k I am signed up for on Feb 4th. Haven’t run since my last half on Dec. 10th and just don’t feel like it. But I love your story. Just because you can’t do it perfectly doesn’t mean you can’t do it at all! So proud of you. Half marathons are HARD and I love that you did it no matter what. Can’t wait to see your next success story posted here! And I’m gonna do that Hot Chocolate 15k regardless if I run, walk, or crawl!!2
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Congratulations on your first major accomplishment of the year (and I hope your first HM)
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Congratulations and I love the medal, I want one of those!!!0
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mom23mangos wrote: »What a great example of perseverance!! Congratulations to you!
Thank you so much! ^-^0 -
creationscrown wrote: »OMG!! Good for you!! You just gave me all the inspiration I needed to go ahead and do the 15k I am signed up for on Feb 4th. Haven’t run since my last half on Dec. 10th and just don’t feel like it. But I love your story. Just because you can’t do it perfectly doesn’t mean you can’t do it at all! So proud of you. Half marathons are HARD and I love that you did it no matter what. Can’t wait to see your next success story posted here! And I’m gonna do that Hot Chocolate 15k regardless if I run, walk, or crawl!!
That's the spirit! I'm glad my story helped inspire you and give you that extra push to know you can do it! Nothing feels better than pushing all that doubt out the window when you finally cross that finish line, no matter how you do it!0 -
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Congratulations and I love the medal, I want one of those!!!
It's a heavy medal! It's super cute too! They have a 5k, 10k, half, and full marathon medals. They also have special medals for doing challenges. The Goofy Challenge is doing a Marathon and a half, and the Dopey challenge is doing all 4 marathons. It would be pretty awesome to have one of those.1 -
Congratulations to you! What ever it take to get started. Your on your way for a better you.
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SandraDixon1945 wrote: »Congratulations to you! What ever it take to get started. Your on your way for a better you.
Thank you so much! I think this is just what I needed to kickstart my way to improving myself
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Well done
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