One More Dawn, One More Day…

…one day more!

(Thanks to “Les Miserables” for the inspiration for this blog title and opening line. Now, readers, go watch this and then come back and read my blog).

I have one more day, as the title implies, until a major athletic event!

Tomorrow I’ll be tackling my 10th half marathon! TEN. When my friend Candace nudged me in the direction of my first half marathon in 2012, I had no idea that I’d keep running them, let alone that I’d ever make it to double digits. Sometimes I love the whole experience of training for and racing them and sometimes I don’t, but there’s something about it that keeps me coming back. It truly boggles the mind.

While tomorrow’s race will be my 10th half marathon, it will also be my sixth Hershey Half Marathon. I enjoy this run a lot (at least, the first 9 or 10 miles of it, usually – after that things tend to get real and I’m ready to be done!), and I know what to expect. Of course, I’m not anticipating that it will be easy or particularly fast, since I’m not in the same running shape I was in a few years back. In fact, I wasn’t exactly in fantastic running shape when I started training nine weeks ago, so I was basically getting in shape while doing my training runs. That’s not exactly a recipe for running success, but I have seen improvement, so it’s all good!

Now for a quick overview of my training (all the quick facts/trivia you ever wanted – or didn’t want – to know):

Length of training: Nine weeks, starting Aug. 20

Total miles run: 131.25, an average of 14.6 per week (which is about 13.6 more per week than I was averaging before I started training for this race, haha)

Number of times I reached my target weekly mileage: Three. Yes, three weeks out of nine. Six weeks I skipped runs or shortened runs and totaled less mileage than my training program called for. I kind of did that on purpose, though, considering that I wasn’t in the best running shape and didn’t want to wear myself out.

Best progress: This is a tough one, but I’ll narrow it down to two:
-I ran my last 6-mile run (Week 9) a minute per mile faster than I ran my first 6-mile run (Week 1)!
-I knocked 37 seconds off my 1.5-mile speed work time between when I did that distance in Week 3 and when I did it in Week 9!

Highlight: Aside from the moments of progress mentioned above, I’d have to say my 12-mile run (it was actually 12.1, FYI). It just felt really good, and, while I wasn’t fast per se, I did pace better than I had during most of my previous long runs.

Lowlight: Thanks to a series of strange and imperfectly timed events, I completely skipped my 10-mile run. Looking back, of course, I can see how I could have planned things better during the week leading up to the 10-miler so that when these unexpected things all happened, I would have been better able to navigate around them. But sometimes you simply don’t know what you don’t know, and I didn’t know. And now you know that I didn’t know, and I know that you know that I didn’t know, and…OK, that’s enough.

Goals for tomorrow, based on my training: Ideally, I’d love to beat my time from Pittsburgh in the spring. Plan B would be to beat either or both of my times from Hershey in 2016 and 2017. Other than that, I want to run a good race based on the effort I’ve put in, where my body is these days, what the weather is like tomorrow, etc.; whatever that looks like on my watch, I hope it’s a good showing for my 10th half marathon!

Now, for a quick look back through training:

My Week 1 long run (6.2 miles) doubled as a virtual 10K for Ryan’s Birthday Party Foundation to help kids with cancer smile!

Some foggy speed work (Week 3)

An unfair advantage to the runner using this lane to practice hurdles (spotted during speed work, Week 4)

Me, after a 9-mile run (Week 4) that I’d intentionally planned to be the hilliest, most challenging route I could find: “What was I thinking?!”

When a bunch of bugs met their doom on my forehead during a 5-miler (Week 6)

A beautiful morning for speed work (Week 6)

I was happy to be done with my 11 miles (Week 6), and Mom was happy to be done with her 6!

Thumbs up for improved times while doing speed work (Week 7)!

When you have to stop in a grocery store unexpectedly after your 12.1-mile run and you feel really bad because unsuspecting shoppers won’t realize just how sweaty and gross you are until it’s too late… (Week 7)

Final long run (6 miles) at a greatly improved pace (Week 8)!

Running through a haze caused by some sort of farm equipment during a 4-miler (Week 9)

Finished my last training run (2 miles of light hill training) after dark (Week 9)

Now for a bit of fun from the expo and Chocolate World today:

One of my many fans! 😉  (Side note: Not only do I struggle to put my race bib on straight, but I also struggle to even hold it straight in pictures, apparently…)

It’s tradition for us each to enjoy a cookie from Chocolate World when we visit the expo. YUM.

Only one box on the training program remains to be checked off: race day!

Next stop: the finish line of my 10th half marathon!