10th Time is a Charm? By Rachel

May 9, 2012

Six years ago, if you told me I would be blogging about running my TENTH (yes, 10!) half marathon, you could have knocked me over with a feather.

But here I am, 2012 and TEN halfs later.

They say that a half marathon is “half the time, twice the fun.” While I don’t know if anything can compete with the power of the REAL Chicago Marathon, after five years, I do have to say that the half comes pretty darn close.

Every race offers a lesson. This one is memorable because it is so hard for me to do.

Trust your gut.

I set off, anxious and nervous as ever with a goal time in mind. It would have been a personal best. It would have been a feat, given that I was poorly trained.

Four miles in, I knew I had it. I felt “it” in every fiber of my body. I knew I could not only beat my goal time for that day, but achieve my dream goal time.

As I ran, I calculated my time (its a great way to kill the miles). My pace continued to increase in speed, and the time began to shrink away. As I neared closer and closer to the 13.1 mark, my legs would not stop. In pain, I chanted “Go. You can do it. keep it up.” Nearing the finish line, I burst into (what I thought was) a sprint and grinned the whole way to the finish line.

I smashed that Dream Goal time by 3 minutes.

Never again will I rely on Running Calculators or Pace Groups or my GPS.

Sometimes, in running or life, I forget that that I need to trust my gut. I get so tied up in my head and my thoughts that choices and decisions come slowly and painfully. This time…there was pain (as to be expected) but no time to decide.

Sometimes, you should LET GO.

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