Goofy Challenge

1:41 half. wake up 24 hours later and run a 3:19 full [a 7.5 min PR]. what. the. heck. How is that even possible? I would have never imaged that the human body is capable of such a thing. Not many people attempt to race a full marathon the day after running a decent effort half marathon.
Jason ran this entire race with me which means a lot. I met Jason (my husband) in September 2012. At the time, he was training for The Chicago Marathon. 3 weeks after meeting him, I decided, hey why not invite myself to chicago with him?! So that’s what I did. LOL. I was seriously INSPIRED. I had never ran a marathon. I didn’t think I had it in me. I didn’t really know anyone who has ran a marathon. He ran a 2:46 that day. 2:46. LIKE IT WAS NOTHING. All of his friends/teammates finished under 3 hours. If they didn’t break 3 it was viewed as a “poor performance”. I thought these guys were NUTS. My 5k PR was slower than they just ran 26.2 miles. I felt completely inadeqate compared to them, but something deep inside me wanted to try it.

fast forward 7 months, I cross the finish line of my first marathon. 4:09. I was embarrassed. It was the worst race performance to date. I felt ashamed of myself. I gave up and cried during the race. I have never been more pessimistic during a race. I was determined to finish, yes. HOWEVER, I was WAY too hard on myself. I took it way too seriously. At the time, I was so concerned with what other people thought. I was concerned with how my marathon time would compare with other people. All that disappeared real quick when I realized I SUCKED at running marathons.

When you have nothing to lose, you have everything to give. Or so I thought. In the peak of the summer heat in July, I got a crazy idea. What if I ran a marathon this weekend? It was a Thursday morning. I signed up later that day. Jason and I drove down to Iowa. Before the start of the race I remember telling him, I might finish around 4.4-5 hours… Maybe I won’t even finish, who knows. All I knew was that that weekend seemed like a good weekend to run a marathon. It really was! I took it nice and easy. This is my first and ONLY marathon that I negative split. 3:47. I could not believe myself. This was when my running spark was truly ignited. I realized it was all about the attitude and persistance.

May 2013- 4:09 [WI]

July 2013- 3:47 [IA]

October 2013- 3:45 [MN]

November 2013- 3:43 [NV]

March 2014- 3:27 [KS]

April 2014- 3:31 [MN]

May 2014- 3:58 split in 50k [4:53] [IA]

July 2014- 3:26 [IA]

January 2015- 3:19 [FL]

I am addicted to improvement plain and simple. Back to the story, this marathon means a lot to me because Jason ran by my side the ENTIRE time. 2 years ago, I would have never imaged that 7:30 pace would be something I would run for 26.2 miles. It opens my eyes to what could be next?

Could? No. What WILL be next.

I will break 3:10.

I will break 3:00

It’s happening. And it will happen within the next few years. I want to prove to my former smoker self that it IS possible. I CAN be an elite athlete. I might not be there yet, but I will be damned if I give up.