This morning I woke up at 8:40AM to start getting ready for the half marathon. It felt really strange that I was just waking up at a time that for half marathons usually would mean I’m at least three miles into the race. I couldn’t decide how I felt about having this much time to get ready and think about running 13.1 miles. When a long race starts at 7:00 or 8:00AM there is absolutely no time to get anxious. I’m usually still too groggy at this time of day to realize what is going on until I’m far enough into the race that it would take just as many miles to turn around as it would to keep going. But today a 10:30AM start meant that as I sat eating my race day banana and oatmeal I had plenty of time to let the butterflies settle in and come up with all kinds of reasons that I may not be able to tackle 13.1 miles in a time that I want.
To try to calm my nerves I continued the previous night’s activities that had started with 2/3 of my recruited cheering committee, and listened to some 90s hits and let my mind musically turn to nostalgia rather than the race. Until today 13.1 in 2.5 had been my best half marathon time. As No Doubt, Britney Spears and NSync started to ease my anxiety it started to seem possible to tackle the 13.1 in under 2 hours 30 minutes. Then I flashed back to the 90s Stepmom soundtrack but I guess I was really flashing back to the 60s, and The Temptations reminded me that there ain’t no mountain high enough to keep me from getting to you babe. So I decided rather than focusing on running, I’d focus on making my way to Eric, KtKark and Anna at the finish line. It seemed easy enough.
AND I DID IT! I crossed the finish line at 2:21:13 (according to the NYRR official time – I was 40 seconds delayed stopping my Nike+GPS since it was in my fanny pack cuz yes, I run with one)! Today was an unbelievable day for so many reasons. First of all, it was amazing because my amazing friends and boyfriend were there to cheer me on and seeing their smiling faces really pushed me to run faster. Especially because my die-hard Cowboys fan of a boyfriend requested that I finish before 1:00PM so he could catch the game today (I tried, but wasn’t able to stick to my word when I crossed at 1:03PM- so close). Second, it was a big PR for me, as my most recent half marathon time was 2:35:43. Third, I got to run with Emily, who is a running inspiration and I haven’t seen her in a few weeks. And last but not least, as of today, I am officially in for the ING NYC Marathon 2013! Today was my ninth race in the 9+1 program.
Even though I had a brief hiatus during training, I felt really strong today. I guess this goes to show that training in general makes you feel much better than waking up the morning of the race and doing it cold turkey. So with just a short 35 days until the Philadelphia Marathon I will consistently move forward with training…wish me luck!
How do you calm your nerves on race mornings?
What I’m running to – Just a Girl- No Doubt
Fueled by Endorphins 
2 responses to “Grete’s Great Gallop”
Congratulations on achieving a new P.R. for half-marathon! During my first few Halves, by Mile 2 or 3 I would talk myself out of the race, “How did you get yourself into this?”, “How can you finish all that distance?” I'm glad those days are over.
Thank you so much! I'm very excited about it. It sounds like you had a great race also! I'm just starting to get past the “How can I finish all that distance?”