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| My 35th Half Marathon, Finished! Magic City Half Marathon Birmingham, Alabama. |
One week ago I ran my 35th Half Marathon in my beautiful hometown, Birmingham, Alabama. I was kinda bummed when I started the race by myself. I had not ran with my running group in almost three months so I was looking forward to running with those guys. However, the gun fired and they took off. Again, this is when injuries just SUCK. I'm not as fast as I was before. BUT. I'm running. So I watched them run on and I just did my own thing. I had a GREAT run (2:32) and found a few friends along the way so that's always fun....
But. I'm THANKFUL.
I'm thankful to be running so I don't care if it's with my running group, by myself or on my treadmill.
This morning I woke up to a group text from my Bootcampers heading out for an early morning run. I was exhausted from the long Thanksgiving weekend so I slept in.
I needed some extra zzzzzz's and I'll thank myself later for it.
One thing that I'm really going to do in the year 2016 (and I'm starting a little before 2016) is to really try to focus on what's good for me. Maybe that sounds a little selfish but I'm okay with it. I find myself always dropping everything to work around everyone else's schedule. Compromise is a beautiful thing.
Since my break, I have ran my most favorite race EVER (Runner's World Half Marathon), Rock n' Roll Savannah Half Marathon, over half of runDisney Wine and Dine Half Marathon and now Magic City Half Marathon. I couldn't be happier or prouder of myself and I did all of those races by MYSELF. 46.4 miles with Kristin.
No running friends crossing the finish line with me on those races listed above. It's been hard and disappointing to say the least but it's been a great lesson. I had different expectations going into some of those races but the outcomes were PERFECT for me.
These are the moments when I learned that no one else will make you a priority. You HAVE to make your own self priority #1. And there is nothing wrong with that.
On Tuesday, I will quietly celebrate another year on this fabulous earth so I decided to treat myself to Rocket City Marathon in two weeks. Yikes. Just like that, I've added a full marathon to my schedule. I'm not completely trained for a marathon but I need to log the miles. I'm still running Dopey Challenge in January (48.6 miles over the course of 4 races) and I gotta get the miles in. I will be smart on the course. No chasing a PR. No keeping up with my running group. No shame in doing my own thing. I like digging deep and pushing through when the mental game kicks in. My mental game is STRONG, much stronger than my legs will ever be.
I'm excited to run another Full Marathon in Huntsville, Alabama in two weeks. Eventually, I hope to cross off all of the races in Alabama. The medal looks cool and it's a Boston Qualifier. I'm going to spend the next two weeks prepping my brain to run 26.2!
Until then....
Happy Running, Happy Training and Happy Birthday to me from me. :)
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| 2015 Magic City Half Marathon Bling! |
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| Some of the proceeds from Magic City Half Marathon are donated to the Ruben Studdard Foundation. |
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