Thursday, February 12, 2009

Save the Light Half Marathon



Never did I think after completing my first marathon that I would complete another half marathon within the same month...but I did! Ever since the Disney marathon I had been itching to get back out there and challenge myself with another run. But, I also needed to give my body some time to heal. After the week we spent in Disney, I felt like I didn't give my body too much time to relax. We were up and at the parks the day after the marathonand didn't stop for five days....not the smartest thing to do, but how can you just stay in your hotel room when you're in Disney World! So after we got back to SC, I rested a little, fought off a cold and then got my butt right back in the gym. Even through I've been in the gym a lot, I really haven't been running very much at all since the race. Maybe just a couple miles every few days. I wanted to do more than that but my body really wasn't having it. I was still so burnt out. So I spent more time that any persob should on the elliptical machines - my joints and knees were thanking me for giving them that type of non-impact activity.
Well about 2 weeks ago I got an e-mail reminder from active.com about the Save the Light Half Marathon. I ran this race last year and did awful. I'm surprised they even wanted me back!! I got a knee injury about half way in to the race and barely finished the race. I swore I wouldn't run that same race again just because I was so angry and bitter about last year. But this year, coming off the marathon, I still had that feeling of "I can do anything I want"! Reckless abandon! So I signed up, and so did Rob. We definitely didn't train for this race but we did it anyway. I didn't have really high hopes and mainly just wanted to do it to get back into the routine of running. The day before the race I started coming down with yet another cold and almost decided not to run at all - but I am so not a quitter!!
So we ran the race and it was awesome. I am so happy I did it. We had great weather, sunny and 40 degrees to start warming up to about 50 or so by the end. The scenery was wonderful running right alongside the beach at a few points. And I did my personal best at this half: 1:59!! My goal in a half has been to finish under two hours and I totally did it! I beat my time from last year by 13 minutes!!! I felt so amazingly proud of myself! Running seriously brings me so much joy and happiness. It makes me feel proud and accomplished. I am so happy that I'm not a quitter and that I was strong enough to power through!
Now to move on the my next physical challenge......

2 comments:

life in a positive direction said...

I am soooo very proud of you!!! Your blogs are awesome. Gives me so much inspiration to try to do better at my goals!!!

Unknown said...

That is awesome!! What an AMAZING time..after running the marathon too..geez girl..you are going to have such a strong base for P90X! :)