Lady Antebellum's "Long Gone" is blasting through my headphones, the song comes to an end, and I can hear the thudding of the 5147 pairs of feet running the Victoria Half Marathon with me, and the total strangers cheering me from the sidelines.
Alright, well maybe I couldn't actually hear the whole 5147 pairs of feet... but I heard a lot of them. It was an amazing sound. I've never even listened 50 people walking... but that many people RUNNING?! It's sound I won't soon forget. There were literally thousands of people out there, and just lil ol me, standing there all alone. (wait... not standing... running!)
When I originally signed up to run the Victoria half marathon, I really wasn't too sure what I was getting myself into. I honestly wasn't sure if I would be able to do it. But, what the heck, I'd never know unless I gave it a shot. So I signed up, payed my fees, and there was no turning back. I ran, and ran, and RAN. Because I only had just under 2 months from my sign-up day till "race" day, I jumped ahead in my training process and started by doing a 10, 11 and 8km run in one week. Oh gosh... stretching I discovered is an essential thing when first starting out. If you don't, you'll pay for it for a couple days.
I discovered a few things through my training.
#1. I need to set goals for myself. It motivates me. I challenges me. I push myself. I am determined to meet the goal set (distance to run) for the day.
#2. I love to exercise, and after a run I would be filled with a sense of accomplishment, whether it was short or long, fast or slow... I was able to find something 'new' that I accomplished with each run.
#3. Running is a good way for my to 'escape'. It gets my mind off of things, or focused on good things. Sometimes when I run.. I feel like I'm in a whole other world.
#4. I gained a new self-confidence... that I can really do anything I set my mind to. If anyone had told me that I would run a half marathon one day... I would have laughed in their face. But I did it. I am not a runner, I am not athletic... but I did it... I believe that anyone could if they just set the mind to it.
I really wasn't focused on a time goal for myself.... all I wanted to do was finish it. The goal I had for myself was to try to run the whole time. Ya, sometimes when I am really tired my running is very very slow, but its still "running". When you sign up... they ask you to set a time goal for yourself. Apparently an average time is between 2 and 2.5 hours. I am not a fast runner... so the goal I set for myself was 2 hours and 45 minutes. I guess with the adrenaline and motivation of so many people running around me made me run faster. Because I did it over 30 min FASTER than I thought I would.
At the starting line... was nervous and anxious.
5km - I felt sick and almost threw up.
7km - I was worried because I was already getting tired.
10km - I thought 'yeah, I've got this thing'.
15km - oh dear... feeling tired again.
18km - I thought I was going to die (or at least walk for a lil bit)
19km - one. step. at. a. time.
20.1km - one kilometer to go!!
21.1km - FINISHED (and why in the world did that last km take SO LONG?! haha)
I think one of the greatest things was all the people scattered along the 'track' cheering on anyone and everyone who passed by. I can be so emotional... and it just brought tears to my eyes and warmed my heart. Here were people who got up early on sunday morning to cheer on random strangers as we tried to accomplish our goals. One of my favorite signs was held up by a sweet little lady around km 17 that read "dear stranger, you are my HERO". It really doesn't matter who the encouragement came from... I just needed it. My parents were also there to cheer me on. Above my music, above the thundering footsteps around me, above the sounds of people cheering I would hear a whistle... not just any whistle... my Dad's whistle. And I would have no problem finding him.
I can't believe I did it. I am so proud of myself. I'm sorry if people get sick of hearing me say that, but I think its okay to be proud about this :)
And now... I am setting a new goal for myself. I'll share what it is some day soon. I have a few more details to work out before I know anything definite. But its a SWEET goal. You'll love it!
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