In 5 days I will be running my first ever half marathon and to me, its a BIG deal!
I was never a runner, never thought I could be, never wanted to be. The longest I had ever run in my entire life was 3 miles and that was in High School. Upon moving to Richmond (a year and a half ago) I quickly noticed how active the community was and in an attempt to meet people, I joined the Sports Backers to train for my first 8k. Now exactly a year later, I will be running the same exact race on November 16th, but only now I will be running the Half Marathon. I NEVER thought this would be possible and now, only a few days out, I still can’t believe it, probably won’t until I pass the finish line and have photo documentation. The Sports Backers is an amazing program run solely on volunteers, their mission is for us to become the most physically active region in the country. Well, they have me sold and I have no doubt I would not be where I am, doing what I’m doing with running, had it not been for the program, I highly recommend it!
Running races and training for them has been part of my bucket list, but it wasn’t until I turned 30 that my desire to finally cross some items off, kicked into high gear. I had run the 8k, 10k, and naturally the next step was the half marathon, but really it was more than that for me. Running became a stress reliever, time alone to myself to think and reflect, and it really helped me through some hard times. It’s ironic how things just happen sometimes, the love/hate I had for running seamlessly turned into a therapeutic tool, not to mention a great workout.
I am very proud of myself and can honestly say I feel stronger, mentally and physically than when I did when I was in my 20’s. Don’t get me wrong, its hard to commit to the training and find time to do it, I could always think of so many excuses not to run. But then I remember that everyone gets the same 24 hours a day, we make time for what we truly want.
People always ask if I would ever run a Marathon, I always reply with, “probably not, never really thought about it,” but now my response is “never say never.”
It’s amazing what you can achieve when you really want something, all you gotta do is commit! If I can do it, YOU can do it! I’m not going to lie, of course its discouraging in the beginning, I couldn’t even run a mile without feeling like I was going to die. During training you will have good days and you’ll have bad days (isn’t that just life though?) but you just power through and its amazing to look back at what you’ve achieved and how far you’ve come.
I’ll see you at the finish line!
Did I mention with the training teams, they even have volunteer Photographers to document your team runs every weekend, how amazing is that?!
http://www.richmondmarathon.com
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