30 Days Catch Up Part 1

Hello!

I got a few days behind in my 30 Days because...

I did my half-marathon!! My time was 2:02:55, which was what I wanted, but far better than I expected!

This actually ties well in to what the 30 Days topic was for Saturday: Trusting Your Body.

The question Tina asked was "In what area do you know you need to trust your body more? How do you plan to do so today?"

Well, training for that race as a whole was an exercise in learning to trust my body. What I learned on Saturday, however, is that I need to trust that it is capable of far more than I realize sometimes!

Going in to the race, I had two targets in mind. The first was that I wanted to just finish the race. Even just finishing a half marathon is a great accomplishment! Especially when you take this in to consideration: 5 months ago, running 5 miles was a HUGE deal for me! Not saying that it isn't--it's still farther than a lot of people run, and for someone just starting out with running, that could be a long-term goal to work toward. However, even just getting to the starting line, going the distance, and crossing that finish line was my first objective and would have been enough of an accomplishment!

I did have a second goal, though: I wanted to finish around 2 hours. This goal, however, felt like it was out of reach. I thought this because during my training runs, I was averaging a far slower pace than I would have needed to reach the 2 hour window. So, standing at the starting line, I was pushing this thought out of my head and trying to keep focused on the first goal: finish.

As the race started and progressed, I kept fighting my body. It almost felt like something inside me knew something my mind couldn't grasp: I could go faster. I should be going faster. I was fighting it because, well, when you're at 3.5 miles of a 13.1 mile race, you shouldn't really be thinking "OK, time to go faster!", especially when you are only shooting to finish. However, at 5.5 miles, I felt like I couldn't fight it anymore. "OK, body, let's do this!", and I started to go at a faster pace. I kept it up, too!

Then, the moment came: I was entering back in to Presque Isle Park, and I had about 2.1 miles to go. I saw my mom, and she had her watch out. "You're at 1:45! You did it! You're doing it!" I was right on track to hit my goal of 2 hours! So, 17 minutes later, I crossed the finish line and accomplished BOTH of my goals. I trusted what my body was telling me during the race, and it got me where I wanted!

So, what have I learned? Not to let my mind always hold my body back. True, there will be times when I'll need to listen to that "hold back" instinct, but I am going to make a very concentrated effort to figure out when that instinct is kicking in because of insecurity or fear and when that instinct is kicking in for a real reason. For example, right now I'm raring to start running again, but I'm listening to what my mind is saying when it tells me that I'm 4 days out from the race and I should probably wait another day or 2 before I start again.

Stay tuned for the 2 other days I missed, and today's entry!