I am one year out from my first 1/2 marathon. I started this blog to track my progress during the training for said 1/2 marathon. It took a few stops and starts but last February, I finally crossed both the start and finish line. I have heard numerous times the person that crosses the finish line is not the person that started the race. I had no idea how true this would be. I finished my first half and immediately set my sights on my first full marathon. Somewhere on that walk around Disney I decided I might want to try the Goofy. Once that thought entered my head, I could not get it out of there.
A little over a month ago I completed the Goofy Challenge. I am still struggling with the emotion of having completed this goal. I still tear up when I see a part of Disney I have not seen since my races. When I talk about my Goofy weekend, my voice will still catch in my throat and my eyes will well with tears. I was afraid this was not a normal feeling, until I met a fellow runner at Disney and as we talked about our races, I noticed we were both in tears. I think of all the reasons I shouldn't have been able to do this, and know my emotions are fine. I think the biggest of these was the fact that I ran on the tenth anniversary of setting this goal. When I had my daughter, ten years ago, I had to have a c-section. For ten years not only have I carried a goal of running a Disney race, but also the feeling that my body failed me on her Birthday. I am thankful every day that I was in the care of doctors that were able to deliver her safely and healthy, but I feel like my body was not able to do what God had designed it to do. This was the second occurrence of a body part not working and me ending up in an operating room. I think the overwhelming emotion comes from knowing that I overcame something I have struggled with for years. This time my heart and body both got what they wanted. My ankle was strong, my heart beat normally, my brain wouldn't let me stop. I finished. I will carry this success with me always.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Training With The Girl
We have decided to run the Expedition Everest 5k challenge as a family. This means we also needed to convince a 10 year old, she is capable of running 3 miles. All of this happened while I was doing my recovery from my last race. This will be all of our first 5k. I am a little nervous because 3 miles is my most disliked distance. I am hoping to embrace the "short" run. While training for my first 1/2, 3 miles was my scary distance when I started, maybe that has just stuck with me.
I have never trained a child, I struggled training myself, and I am not an expert. That being said, I started this blog to encourage and log my training to hopefully inspire others not sure of where to start. I will continue that now as I also work with my daughter to get her 5k ready. The Girl regularly talks about running the mile at school and that some days PE consists of run/walking the track for the allotted class time. I also know she is capable of walking miles and miles at Disney without whining. I used these benchmarks as a starting point as to what seemed like a reasonable goal. My husband had taken her on a 2 mile walk the other day and she was running ahead and back, in a similar fashion to a quarter drill for a good chunk of that. As the member of the family that has done a race before, my main job will be encourager/pacer.
I decided to take her out for a 3 mile run/walk to see where we were starting. Since it is a Run Disney event they have a required pacing of 16 min/mile. The girl and I did 3 miles in 42 minutes. I also added in a 1/4 mile warm up and cool down lap. We started with a 1:1 run walk ration of 1 minute. Now that we know she can keep the pace required for the race we are going to slowly build up the run:walk ratio. We will likely add in some upper body work-outs for all of us since we are unsure of what the obstacles will be.
I have never trained a child, I struggled training myself, and I am not an expert. That being said, I started this blog to encourage and log my training to hopefully inspire others not sure of where to start. I will continue that now as I also work with my daughter to get her 5k ready. The Girl regularly talks about running the mile at school and that some days PE consists of run/walking the track for the allotted class time. I also know she is capable of walking miles and miles at Disney without whining. I used these benchmarks as a starting point as to what seemed like a reasonable goal. My husband had taken her on a 2 mile walk the other day and she was running ahead and back, in a similar fashion to a quarter drill for a good chunk of that. As the member of the family that has done a race before, my main job will be encourager/pacer.
I decided to take her out for a 3 mile run/walk to see where we were starting. Since it is a Run Disney event they have a required pacing of 16 min/mile. The girl and I did 3 miles in 42 minutes. I also added in a 1/4 mile warm up and cool down lap. We started with a 1:1 run walk ration of 1 minute. Now that we know she can keep the pace required for the race we are going to slowly build up the run:walk ratio. We will likely add in some upper body work-outs for all of us since we are unsure of what the obstacles will be.
A Few More Memories
I have a few more things I do not want to forget. I have enjoyed 2 weeks of rest, the hamstring seems to be all healed up, and The Girl and I have completed our first 3 mile run as a duo. As I took my downtime after the races, new memories come flooding in. I wanted to get them in writing so I could look back on them when training for next year's Goofy gets rough.
- Yes, I said next year's Goofy. My husband and a friend or three want to do the Goofy with me next year.
- The final Marathon finisher finished with her service dog. One of the lovely, amazing, and beautiful volunteers brought a medal to the dog in the med tent.
- Having a best friend that stayed up to make sure she could talk to me while I was on the way to the starting line both days. Also having her husband, one of my favorite people in the world (mostly because he gets my stupid jokes), tell me they were proud of me. I miss those two. With any luck they may be 2 of the three from item 1.
- A guest service representative that saw The Girl cheering for every single runner, asked her to come find her before they headed to see me at the finish. She rewarded her with any stuffed animal she would like. The guest services rep said since she spent her birthday weekend cheering for the runners she deserved something special.
- Yes, I said next year's Goofy. My husband and a friend or three want to do the Goofy with me next year.
- The final Marathon finisher finished with her service dog. One of the lovely, amazing, and beautiful volunteers brought a medal to the dog in the med tent.
- Having a best friend that stayed up to make sure she could talk to me while I was on the way to the starting line both days. Also having her husband, one of my favorite people in the world (mostly because he gets my stupid jokes), tell me they were proud of me. I miss those two. With any luck they may be 2 of the three from item 1.
- A guest service representative that saw The Girl cheering for every single runner, asked her to come find her before they headed to see me at the finish. She rewarded her with any stuffed animal she would like. The guest services rep said since she spent her birthday weekend cheering for the runners she deserved something special.
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