First and foremost, I never had any ambition or thought process of running a half marathon. Ever. I ran a bit in the past due to sports, but I was never an advocate for long-distance. Big shoutout to my slowpitch softball teammate and friend to this day, Amber, as she was in the midst of training for this specific race and asked if I wanted to join. At this time, it was August of 2020. I was hesitant, as most of us would be. Not sure if I was feeling confident one day or what, but I finally agreed to do it, so she advised me to follow a training guide. Being that it was August at the time and the race was on October 3rd, I only pictured it being a fluke. Sure enough, the next day, I put on my big-girl pants and began the training process.
A month passed by, and I was at about eight miles into my training. They say if you can run 10, you can run a half marathon. So that was my thought process from there on; 'Just get to 10'. After hitting eventually 10 and 12, I had a good feeling that I was going to be okay. It's pretty crazy how a little mental push can double the physical push.
The day of the race, I took first place in my age group for females (I was 24 years old) with a time of two hours and 10 minutes. With flying colors, Amber also placed high for her age group. Her two sisters and mother also joined us! I was proud of all of us. I was even more proud that she asked me to run it with her, because if she didn't, again, I wouldn't be writing this blog but most importantly, I wouldn't have met her family, whom I ran another race with but we'll chat about that one later. We had a great time in South Dakota, including my first trip to Mount Rushmore, and I was already looking forward to doing it again the following year.
Two things I learned from my first race:
1. You soon become friends with those who have faith in you.
2. Stretch after your run. The partying can wait until you're done stretching (Yes, I made that mistake).
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