Not gonna lie, I'm a bit scared

Today was the 40th running of the New York Marathon, one of the world's largest races. We caught the last bit of television coverage as the winners crossed the finish line. I sat in awe as they finished the last 6 miles, running somewhere in the ballpark of a 4:30-5 minute mile. That's INSANE! I can't even run a half mile in that time. The winner for the men was Geoffrey Mutai from Kenya with a time of 2:05:05 (destroying the course record of 2:07:30) and Firehiwot Dado of Ethiopia won the women's race in 2:23:15. I'm pretty sure my legs won't move that fast. As they showed some of the other 47,107 participants I got my first real glimpse of what's in store for me. My race is capped at 1,000 so it will be no where near as packed, but I'm definitely intimidated by it.

My solution to my intimidation was to get out and run. The last two weeks haven't been that great as far as my training goes due to being sick and cold/snowy weather. I was supposed to do a 4 mile long run yesterday, but decided running in the cold wasn't a good idea until I stop being sick. Today the sun was out and it got into the 40s, so I decided it would be ok to run. I grabbed the dogs and off we went. I've learned that running with both dogs helps me to run faster and farther than I when I'm alone. I wasn't planning on having a good run, simply because my last couple weren't that great, but I went anyway.

I'm really glad I did! I don't know if it was the motivation from the NY race, the dogs, or what but I did my 4 miles in 58 minutes. That breaks down to about a 14 minute mile, which isn't stellar, but I was consistent. I only took a couple brief walk breaks. Right now I'm not as concerned with time as I am being able to run the distance, so every time I run a bit more and walk a bit less its a win.

I still don't consider myself a runner, but I did miss it last week when I was sick. I don't like getting out there and doing it...but I do love the fact that I see myself improving each week that I get out there. I guess I am starting to understand why runners run, something I never thought would happen.


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