How I Became a Runner… (part 2)

If you missed part 1, you can find it here.

I remember “googling” “how to run a half marathon” . I found that Disney actually put out some sort of training plan on their site. I took a look at it, decided that I could do something similar, and went with it. At that point, I was running 2-3 times a week, approximately 3-4 miles at a time. In addition, I was lifting at the gym or taking a class at the gym a couple of times a week, so I had a decent baseline of fitness. 

I honestly had no idea what I was doing, but I kept running 3 times a week. My two runs during the work week stayed at the 3-4 mile range. Then, I slowly starting working my Saturday long run up. I started with 5 miles, then the next week I would do 6 miles, then 7, etc. Let me tell you, the feeling of accomplishment that you get when running further than you’ve ever run before is AMAZING!!!!! It was so awesome to realize what my body could accomplish! I worked my way up to a 10 mile long run, and never went farther than that. (I still write the training plans for my mom when she runs half marathons, and I never have her go beyond 10 miles. If you can run 10, you can run 13.1 miles!) I remember feeling ready for my race!

We decided we were going to make this trip to Disney a family trip, so we traveled with both boys (Carter was 6 and Noah had just turned 2), as well as, my parents and grandmother. My mom had decided she was going to finally try a half marathon as well, but when we went to sign her up the race had sold out. Anyway… we headed off to Disney to do ALL the things! The whole Disney experience with the boys, plus, a little race thrown in there too :) 

The race was SUPER early on a Sunday morning. I want to say, I had to leave my resort by 3:00 am or something crazy like that. The race starts and finishes before the parks open for the day, so they have to start very early. Thank goodness my mom volunteered to go with me that morning! Mark stayed back at the hotel with the sleeping kids, so it was nice to have some company headed to the race! 

When I got to the race, I was instantly overwhelmed! I think there was something like 56,000 runners that year! That’s a TON of people y’all!!! Disney was super organized though and it was such an amazing event. I could easily write a whole blog post on just the race alone, but I am going to just say….. running a Disney race should be on everyone’s bucket list!!

My mom left to go find where she would wait, and I headed to my corral. I was talking with some girls near me before we started and one of them asked me what my goal was for the race. I looked at her and asked her what she meant? Didn’t everyone have the same goal? To cross the finish line? I had no clue at this point that goal finish times were even a thing! She proceeded to tell me that breaking 2 hours in the half marathon is a very popular goal and her goal, and I should go for that. I asked what pace that was per mile (I did have a Garmin and was aware at what paces I had been running in my training. I never did any speed work, and ran all of my miles at about the same pace. Oh how I’ve learned so much since then! lol). She told me it was a 9:10 minute mile average to meet that goal. I told her that my pace had been around that, so I could make that my goal too! Lol. Again, I had no clue. 

Let me just say that I had no idea what starting a race with that many people would be like. There was no way I could get out of the crowd for the first couple of miles! I remember seeing my watch beep 10:00-10:30 the first few miles and I knew there was no way I was going to make it under 2 hours. 

Spoiler alert…. I didn’t. I think I ran 2:04 or something like that. But the running bug had officially bit me. I knew I wanted to break 2 hours in the half marathon! Thankfully, mom and I were signed up for a local race at the beach a couple months later. I figured this time, I could do it! Again, I didn't change anything about my training (went back to two shorter runs during the week and one longer run on the weekend), but I was ready. 

Mom and I ran the Island to Island Half Marathon on April 26th. This is where the love of Mom and I running races together was born. I am so blessed to have my momma with me for most of my races. Anyway…. I lined up at this race and saw a few people holding signs. (Again, I had no clue.) I found out that these people were apparently called pacers, and you try to stay with them during the race so that they can “pace” you to your goal. What a great idea right?! Lol. I was so excited! I found the guy holding up the 1:55 sign. I figured if I stayed somewhere between him and the girl holding up the 2:00 hour sign, I was golden! So that was my plan! 

The plan worked! I stuck to that 1:55 guy like glue, and ended up crossing the finish line around 1:54. I was happy and felt accomplished! My mom also did amazing and finished her first half marathon! Let me just say…. getting to cheer my mom on as she crosses the finish line is one of my absolute favorite things to do. I tear up just typing this. Overall…. It was a fantastic day!

After this race, I said I was done with running distance. I hit my goal, now I was moving on. I wanted to get back into taking spin classes and Body Pump classes at the gym, like I had been prior to training. Also, right after this race is when I really got into lifting weights. My husband had been a personal trainer for many years, and he taught me everything he knew. I got the bug for lifting and let go of running… for a little while at least :) 

To be continued….