The Grand Lake Marathon, which is held in Celina.
I participated in this race last year and loved it! It was a beautiful course and the time of the year is perfect! What I loved the most about this race was that at every mile, there were "cheer groups". Local business could purchase a mile marker and set up a station to help cheer on the participants! I loved it! Every mile I was looking forward to seeing what business would be there! It kept things exciting! From what I remember from last year, my favorite cheer stations were St. John Lutheran Church and Wright Stale Lake Campus. I also remember that there was a band playing once I got to the park in St. Marys. It wasn't your normal marching band. It was more hip hop and had awesome beats. It was so cool!
I'm excited for tomorrow! The race starts at 7:30am, so I'll prolly show up around 7am.
This is the 1st time that I am participating in a race where I am NOT prepared at all.
I didn't train for this one.
At all.
The other 2 half's that I have been in, I trained (hard) for months to prepare for. This one, I just couldn't find the energy, time, interest, and drive. I don't know why, but it just "wasn't in me" this time.
Then why am I doing it? Why did I even register?
Because I know me.
I know, for a fact, that if I didn't participate, on the day of the race I would be wishing SO BAD that I was part of it. I would have been soooooo regretful for not signing up. I would have been really hard on myself and beat myself up about it. I KNOW I would have done this.
Its an awesome feeling when you know yourself really well. I am so proud of me for listening to my gut and signing up for the half marathon, even though I knew I wasn't going to be prepared.
So what's my plan?
Do my best.
As of now, I am planning on starting out with a very easy interval. Something that's not gonna kill me or set me up for failure right in the beginning.
I'm thinking maybe 2 min run, 5 min walk for the first few miles.... maybe bumping it up later, but maybe not. There is a possibility that even the easy interval may kill me, so if that's the case, my ass will be walking, and I'm totally OK with that.
I'm seriously just so happy to be a participant. and I will NEVER have a goal of "running the entire time". I KNOW I could never do that. My body would never let me, I promise that. I know myself well enough. I have no desire to EVER run more than 3 miles straight at a time. Just to be clear.
I'm hoping I can finish in under 3 hours. If I finish in 2 hrs. and 59 minutes, I'll be happy!
If I would have trained for this like I had originally planned, my goal time would maybe be to finish in under 2hr. 45 min.
I finished my 1st race in almost 4 hours.
My second I set a goal to finish under 3 hrs and 30 min. and I ended up finishing in 2 hrs and 57 min!
That was a proud moment!
My third race I'm gonna keep my goal the same it was last year... under 3 hrs and 30 min.
As long as I reach it, I'm good with that!
If I go over 3hrs 30 min, (which is a huge possibility), I wont be devastated. I'll still be proud of myself... but I know I can do better and (hopefully) not reaching my goal will push me to train harder next year!
Every half marathon I have done so far, I have gotten myself a little "diddy" (as my friend, Jo, would call it) as a reward.
This is my "diddy".
Every race I do (half marathons only) I add a washer with the date.
I'm still shocked that this will be my 3rd. I never thought Id ever do anything like this. Go me!
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