Now that it’s been a week after the Half Marathon and the soreness of the race as worn off, I can now debrief about the race. I remember when I first started running, one of the group leaders said that after you do your first marathon, after crossing the finish line, you have one of two thoughts. The first thought would be “When’s the next race” and the second thought would be “I did this once and I am never doing this again.” I didn’t realize the trueness of that statement until I crossed the finish line last Sunday. As soon as I was handed a cool bottle of water, I immediately thought to myself, “I didn’t do as well as I wanted in this race so I am glad that I have a chance to redeem myself in the Chicago Half Marathon in September.”
For me, running has become addictive. I always want to challenge myself further. There is this great sense of accomplishment when you push your body to limits it has never experienced before. There were a lot of things that I did right in the race and other things that I need to improve. If I am honest with myself, I didn’t do everything possible to get prepared for the race. I didn’t put in all the required mileage during the week and my cross training was basically nonexistent. All the things that I didn’t do were made very evident on race day. I would also not recommend changing your personal relationships and moving while you are training for a race.
Last Saturday our running group met on Saturday for a run since most of us are running the Chicago Half. My leg was not 100% so I only ran 8 miles instead of the scheduled 10 miles. I just wish we would have weather that was not so warm. Bring back those cool fall days. Running in a group makes it much more pleasant to do your long runs. Besides the marathon runners, I think our pace group was the only one that was basically still intact and ran.
I basically joined the CARA program so I would learn to run at a certain pace so I could finish the race. What I didn’t know would happen is that I would have the good fortune to be part of a group of runners who I totally enjoy to run with and to hang out with after running. Some things are just priceless.
And by the way, I found out that about 8,000 runners never finished the race. At least I crossed the finish line and didn’t have to have medical attention afterwards. For the next race, I am taking the day after the race off and getting a massage. My body definitely needs a day to really recover from the race.
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