The Little Things

November 2, 2015

Reflections On My Half Marathon PR 1 year Later

On November 1, 2014 I lined up at the starting line of the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon, feeling completely unsure of how this race would go. I had my last long run in September of 2014 because I got shin splints, and hardly ran all of October.

I had put my heart into training all summer and early fall, and was raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with Team in Training. All training cycle I was convinced that this was my year. I knew that my training was on point, and I thought I was set for a PR… until I got injured and things fell apart.

October was difficult mentally for me, and I was worried that I wouldn’t even be able to finish the race, but I was excited as I did my pre-race rituals that morning.

We kicked off the race and I felt surprisingly good, and loved those first few miles with Caitlin and Melissa, and somewhere around mile 4 Cait and I broke off from Melissa and I pushed ahead, still feeling good.

The race was hard, but I feel like running in memory of my grandma helped to push me forward.

Everything seemed to come together in that race, and the last two miles I hit a zone that I had never hit in a race before, and I set an amazing PR. IT WAS MAGIC.

Crossing that finish line was one of the true highlights of my life. I’ve had other excellent races, but this race finish was SO unexpected- my reactions clearly show the range of emotion I rapidly went through at the finish:

One second difference- smiles and tears of happiness

It’s hard to imagine another race being quite the same as Monumental was last year. I ran with friends, I had had a most excellent training cycle (before the shin splints), I raised money in memory of my grandma, and I set a shocking PR for myself. It was beautiful, and it was magical. A year later I still tear up thinking about the race.

After that race I wrote a post entitled “13.1 Thoughts on Running 13.1” where I talked a bit more about what I love about the half marathon and what it’s given to me.

The 2014 Indy Monumental Half Marathon was absolute magic full of warm feelings, smiles, tears… and a few moments where I almost passed out. It’s hard to imagine that I’ll ever beat the feelings of that weekend.

Reflections on my Half Marathon PR- Embracing the Magic.

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