Well, I made the jump! I signed up for my first Marathon. It will be the Asheville Marathon in Asheville, NC on March 15th. Let me just say, I have my work cut out for me. For one, I know myself and I will procrastinate. so in an effort to keep myself on the straight and narrow, not only did I sign up for the Asheville Marathon, but I also signed up for a Half-Marathon in October and another that I will be signing up for that takes place in January. I figure that having these two on the race calendar will keep me motivated to actually put in the work even though March seems SO far away.
In my last post, I mentioned how I mis-remembered the turnaround point and ran 5.5 miles instead of 4. That run was amazing for my confidence. In fact, I recently ran a 4 mile route that is super hilly and I ran the whole way and conquered all the hills. I was so excited and the Marathon seemed so possible!
Today, however...today was a different story. I didn't feel like running. I was dreading it on some level so my head definitely wasn't in the right place. But I made myself go anyway. It was hot, but I was OK. However, less than a mile into the 4 mile run I was going to do, my shins started getting really sore, really fast. I have no idea why. I've been stretching. I've been doing calf raises. I did notice that my form felt off and like I really couldn't get a good stride rhythm going. So maybe that was part of it. Everything just felt off and awkward.
The really bad part though was what it did to my confidence. While walking back, it started to rain. I felt like I was in some bad movie scene where just when you think it can't get worse, it does by raining on the already defeated main character. Me.
I know March is a ways away. I know I have time and that this was just a small speed bump. I didn't expect training to go super smoothly, I just didn't think I'd have issues this early on. One thing you can say about running is that it can humble you.
So what will I do? First of all, I will think of all the positives. That I tried. That I've been hurt before, but got past it. I will focus on the future but I will also fix the past. I put on my coach hat and reviewed my plan and what I realized was this. I have not been putting in the work I mapped out. I've been active every day. Hikes, walks, some runs. But not the running I had in my plan. I would hike or walk and then the rest of the day would slip by. I was telling myself it was fine. It was not fine. For me and looking back at my running journal - I lack consistency. And today was my body letting me know.
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