I ran a half-marathon today. 1.56.09. 8:52/mi pace. Two minutes faster than my personal record from the race I ran in March (Run for the Alamo) for a new PR and featuring all of my fastest times for the mile, 5K, 10K along the way. It’s an unofficial time, but on a route with more hills and no race support, I couldn’t be happier.
There are no official races happening, so I’d been training to run another half for the last two months. Today technically wasn’t supposed to be the day. In my running plan, I should’ve run it next week, but then I got sick and screwed up my plan for two weeks and well, when I started running today I felt good. I felt fast and found that I was holding the pace and honestly I didn’t want to waste it.
It’s different running race pace alone, unofficially, with no race day energy to spur you on. Just my audiobook and a fascination that I’m still going while constantly battling thoughts of turning back early or slowing down. I wouldn’t exactly call running at that pace easy for me yet, but I could tell the speed work I’d been incorporating this fall was paying off. When I finished I didn’t collapse or feel pushed past my limit as I did in March, even though I had a lot more longer runs logged before that race. I made the jump up from 10 miles last week to the 13.1 this week and it didn’t feel like a stretch. A further tribute to what I’ve been learning this past year in RunRx (I used their half running plan for the first seven weeks of my training until I got sick).
I am so goddamn happy about this. Speed isn’t everything, but I’ve been wanting to get faster as I think about attempting longer distances in the future. I couldn’t stop smiling when I ended at the bay and then I teared up a little. I never thought I could be a runner, not a good one, and while I know “good” is very subjective, today I feel like a runner. My favorite part of running is that is just a competition against yourself surronded by a community that is just in love with running. Or, my favorite part of running is how much I feel like myself when I do it and afterwards. It’s the best thing I know for me to manage my mental health.
I’m looking forward to official races in the future, but for now I’ll keep plodding along on the backroads.
With Love,
Natalie