A month ago I made a pretty big decision. I decided to sign up for a half marathon. Crazy, right? That is 13.1 miles from start to finish. I have never attempted to run that distance up to this point in my life, nor did I ever think I ever wanted to attempt that distance in my lifetime to begin with.
I never really fancied myself as a runner, even though I ran track in high school—I only ran my freshman year if that counts. I was comfortable with putting in the convenient one to three miles from time to time, however, as I began to push myself physically, I realized that I was getting faster and one to three miles was just to easy, I began to toy with the idea in my head about if I could do it, but I just left the thought at the “What if…” stage never pursuing it. That was until I got a phone call and found out that both of my dads are pursuing this distance. I thought to myself, “if they can do it why cant I?” So, I signed up alongside them for the half marathon in Zion National Park in Utah.
The running was harder than I thought. Breaking that barrier of running four miles non-stop was awesome and full of sweat. Did I run the distance fast? No, not really, I just wanted to see if I could do it. Two weeks later, I was forced to run six miles when I was training with the US Marine Corps with my younger brother and I walked I think about twenty five feet of the thousands I traversed. Did I think I could go six miles and did I want to? Well, no if I am being honest. However, with the realization that I could do the distance I was reinvigorated to keep up my training.
Today, a month later, I am excited about the progress I have made. Getting to the distance of 13.1 miles is not easy. It is definitely a process to get to that point. Am I there yet? No, but I am closer now than I was a month ago as the farthest I have run now is seven miles. I don’t run the distance fast, I set my pace at ten minutes per mile, but I positively focus on the fact that I am covering the distance. Do I think that the distance sucks and that being home would be nicer? Yes, but not getting out there in itself prevents me from helping myself. So, as I begin my process here in Texas I am relegated to running in the early morning Texas heat as that is the only time I can assure myself that I will not melt.
It is awesome to see my dads begin to train for this half marathon because it will culminate in a pretty cool shared memory. The half marathon from when I write this is nine months away. That seems like a long time, but with the most important year of college looming ahead of me, junior year, it will fly by faster than I can blink. I’m going to train when I can, I’m going to make necessary sacrifices, I’m going to ensure that when I toe the line next to my fathers that I can go and complete the distance.
