Half Marathon Recap

...Well, although this post says it was posted May 13, 2011...it really wasn't. It's actually June 13, 2011. For the first time in five and one half years, I missed a month of blogging. I simply didn't find the time and so to make up for it, I am going to fib a little and pretend it's actually mid-May. Not that it will matter much, I actually have been thinking about this posting for close to 6 weeks now, but sometimes it's just too difficult to sit down and get some free time at the computer. I've neglected a lot of electronic related tasks in the past month - so it's time to catch up!As I mentioned, I've been thinking about my next blog post since May 1. Namely, because the Lincoln Half Marathon was that day. Even during the race, I was doing a lot of thinking about how to express my feeling regarding the 'race' that morning. Running the half marathon is significantly different than any other race I have ever trained for - especially considering my specialty in college was distance sprinting - 400 meter, 800 meter, and occasionally a metric mile or even a rare steeplechase so everyone had something to laugh about for the painful 11 minutes it took me... I digress though, those races were short compared to the hour and forty three minutes I was running - I had lots of time to think about what was happening.

Mostly, I was just thankful it was a nice morning - cool, slight breeze, and a terrific atmosphere. As far as my run went, I improved 26 seconds from last year. Yup, 26 seconds - or in other words, 2 seconds per mile faster. I guess it's nice to think I improved my time, but I really thought I would be a few minutes faster at the least - especially since I felt like I did a little more training this year. Then again, I felt a lot better this year during the final few miles than I did last year - so that was a welcomed improvement.

Laura did much better than I though she would. Not to say I didn't think she would do very well, but she ran 1:37 which was 7 minutes faster than me - literally beating me by nearly a mile. Although, it was nice of her to run the first mile with me. Once we passed the Nebraska State Capital Building she was ready to go running, and I didn't stop her. I was proud of her to be in such good shape in just over 6 months after having a second baby and it was nice to have her with me every Sunday morning when we ran our long runs around Kearney. That hour or two, when we could run together and just pass the time by chatting about everything we don't talk about around our kids or even just the mindless thoughts we have while passing mile after mile are a welcome relief to all the time we can't sit together and talk and an even more relaxing way to release the stress of the past week.

Maybe more importantly is the thankfulness Laura and I have for my parents, who kindly agreed (willing or not) to watch the boys while we selfishly took to the trails and streets in our quest to prove we could still push or bodies a little farther than we really want to. Without having my parents to watch them every weekend, I can guarantee I wouldn't have been running as much as I did, and I KNOW I wouldn't have managed to improve my time either.

Not only did Laura run the half marathon with me, but so did my sister, brother, his fiancee, and two first cousins. It was actually much more enjoyable for me this year to have other people I know running, although we didn't run together, just to keep that encouragement going and remember that other people were out there working hard too. Hopefully it wasn't too bad for them and they were able to enjoy it enough to consider it again in the future...
...which brings me to my final thought. I have a few months yet before I need to be worrying about the run next year, but I question my willingness to train for another half marathon next year. It is a great reason for me to run all winter long, yet I feel like I rely upon my parents to watch the boys every weekend and the amount of time necessary to train can become overwhelming... then again, I sure enjoy pushing my body to train for something challenging, so it's hard to walk away from something like that. But, like I said, I have a lot of time to think about it, so for now I will just enjoy the fact that I finished and I felt better than last year. It's the small victories that make all the work worth it in the end.

Until again
-=Nolan=-