Running Memories

You know how Facebook shows you memories from that particular date in the past?  Well this one just popped up for me yesterday as a memory from November 1, 2013.

"I am flirting with the idea of increasing my running distances. I've just been doing 5ks up to now. I might try to train for a 10k next spring or summer. Any tips from you runners? Having said that, I just finished a training run for my 5k in a couple weeks and feel like I'm about to die."

It's so interesting to see how far I've come in a couple years.  So after putting that post up at the end of 2013, I signed up for a beginning running training group with the local road runner's club.  We trained for a 5k and I learned a lot of great information about getting into running.

Of course it rained during our goal 5k for the training group

Then, I did my first 10k in June of 2014 where I learned my first lesson about races in hot weather.

After that, I joined up with another training group for my first half marathon. This race taught me a lot about persevering and what I am capable of doing.  It was an unseasonably cold race and I really appreciated the blanket as a finisher premium!

Thankfully Mike met me at the finish with warm clothes to put on

After that, I went to Rock and Roll DC 2015 as my second half marathon.  This is the first race where I didn't follow the training plan to a T.  I had an injured foot and a trip to India in that training cycle.  And to add insult to injury, it rained all through that race.  So this race taught me that I can run a half even if I have less than ideal training or less than ideal race day conditions.

Next was the Wine and Dine half in Disney World.  This is the race where I had a great training cycle, but then the race was delayed around an hour and shortened to around 7 miles due to the threat of lightning.  I learned to roll with the punches and that even when I control the training, I can't control everything about race day itself.

Then we have Rock and Roll DC in 2016. This is the race where I trained with friends through the Winter and they ran their first half marathon!  I learned about how rewarding it is to run with friends and share their triumphs.

And now, I'm coming up on Half Marathon number 4 (I don't count Wine and Dine since the race ended up shortened) in a couple weeks!  I'm excited and feel ready to learn whatever this race has in store to teach me :)  I also enjoyed this reminder from Facebook to look back at my running journey and how far I've come since I first posted that question 3 years ago.  Sometimes when I'm struggling on a run and things are tough, I forget how far I've already come on this journey and it's good to have this look back.  And it's also a good reminder that most of the time when I look back on races, it's not the finishing time that I remember but the experience.