Half Marathon Epiphanies
I ran the Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon yesterday (and live to tell the tale!), and it was an AWESOME race.
I’ve been unofficially training for it since early April when I found myself running a lot to help process through my emotions, something exercise has always helped me with.
I slowly built a base and increased mileage, and by June realized it’d be fun to have something to actually train for. So I signed up for a half marathon.
I’ve been officially training for it ever since. And all the while, when I wasn’t dodging snakes or other animals on the trail, I mused. I let myself think about the things that frustrated me or made me sad, about sticking points in my mystery novel, or sometimes just how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place with an unobstructed view of the Rocky Mountains.
It’s kinda embarrassing to admit, but when I went to run the Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon, I expected to have some sort of epiphany, some grand realization that had been just out of my reach.
I have no idea why I thought this. I’ve done races before and know this isn’t true.
What I ended up thinking about during the race was, in fact, the race itself (shocker!). I focused on the way my body felt, of how much energy I was expending, the way my knees twinged going downhill, dodging and weaving with other racers (big races like this always make me think of the arcade game Frogger).
And I thought about my pace, each and every mile split, and daydreamed about my seemingly impossible goal of finishing in under 2 hours. In the only other half marathon I’ve ever done, I finished in 2 hours flat and, oh, how I wanted to beat that time!
At the end of the race, I kicked into gear, sprinting the last 200 yards with all the energy I had left. Turns out, I finished in 1 hour 59 minutes and 36 seconds. Even now, I still can’t quite believe I did it!
Here’s my big epiphany: I run races for a very different reason than I run every day. I run races to challenge myself and maybe, just maybe, to prove that I can do something I didn’t think was possible.
Are you a runner? Why do you run? What do you think about when you run? Have you had any grand epiphanies?
What I’m reading: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
What I’m listening to: Boom Clap — Charli XCX
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