I never thought I would find the strength within myself to run a marathon. The jury is still out, as I haven’t run one yet! BUT! Marathon training is in effect, and for training I ran 14 miles last weekend. That is my longest run to date! A half marathon is 13.1 miles. I will be running a half in four days!

Photo via BlacklistLA, edited with the Nike app.

It’s hard on the body to run so much. It is. It’s not easy to get to the point where this even feels possible. There was an opportunity, two months ago, to run Rock N Roll Los Angeles and Rock N Roll Vegas, two weeks apart, with a 5k I had signed up for the weekend between. Got all that? It was a busy time, to say the least. I was signed up for the Vegas half, and had been awhile. A lot of my run friends were doing LA, and then a few doing both races, so I was tempted. I was almost talked into it. A MARATHON IS TWO HALF MARATHONS AT THE SAME TIME, WHY NOT.

I wasn’t ready. I wanted Vegas to be a sub-2 half marathon, which means I wanted to run it in under two hours. Then I got sick the week of the half, and I missed that sub-2 by six minutes. I’m so thankful I didn’t run back-to-back half marathons at that point in time. I was so close to my goal, and my nose was running, and then I had to walk. Mike looked at my splits and told me exactly where I hit a wall, which was mile 10. I ran too fast the first seven miles, trying to make my time and burned myself out.

Running is personal, your body is personal, and you know, deep down, when you’re gonna test your limits, or when you need to listen in and take it easy. Training runs and race runs are different. I’ve done back-to-back race weekends and it’s hard. I run hard for races! I’m a 110% person. I tire myself and everyone around me out, especially when given candy and soda. That’s quite a feat for an introvert, but as I’ve been told “not everyone can run 7 miles, nap for 45 minutes, and then be good to go.” Energetic-extroverted-introvert is the term I’ve been given.

So I ran 14 miles last Saturday and this Sunday I’m running 13.1, and I’m hoping I get that sub-2. Even if I don’t, I’m doing what I did not think was fathomable two months ago.