Half-Assed, but not Half-Bad

As my final race of 2006, I ran the Baltimore Half-Marathon last Saturday. I had originally planned to run the Army Ten-Miler, but when an opportunity to party with my girl, et al. in NYC presented itself, I (rightly) decided to bail. (Technically speaking, "Emma Garrison" did run the Army Ten-Miler with a time of 1:24:04, but that wasn't actually me. It was some chica named Courtney who is training for the Marine Corps Marathon and who I allowed to impersonate me for the day.) Since I knew as early as mid-summer that I wouldn't be able to run, and I thought it would be good for me to do one last long-run race before year's end, I registered for the half-marathon instead.

Though it sounded like a good idea at the time, once fall arrived, things got busy and I started to lose interest in going out for long training runs. I figured all I had to do was one 10-mile run before the race, and it wouldn’t take many runs to ramp up to that as I can run 5-6 miles fairly easily. The problem with an easy training plan, however, is that it’s also very easy to blow it off. And, boy did I. I did make it out for a couple (literally two) 7-9 mile runs about a month before the race, but mostly my training consisted of lounging around the house, going to pilates and spinning as per usual, and sneaking out for the occasional 3-5 mile run during the week.

The main motivation I had for actually going through with the race was to not let the $80 registration fee go to waste, in addition to the registration fee I had already wasted on the Army Ten-Miler. I got kind of annoyed with myself for the self-imposed pressure to do race after race after race. As a compromise, I decided to go through with the half, pledging to walk or do whatever I had to do just to finish, and then I would take a break from races and not even considering doing another before the Cherry Blossom Ten-Mile Run next April.

It’s seems silly, because it’s not like I was even training that much, but something about feeling like I should constantly be running, swimming, biking, or doing some activity that supplements my training efforts was getting to me and starting to take away from the enjoyment I usually associate with exercise. I thought it would be good for me to forget about what I should be doing and give myself the freedom to do whatever I feel like doing. Lift weights, go to kickboxing, try out Zumba and Hip-Hop.

The Thursday before the race, I actually ended up going to Step, which I haven’t done since law school, and, I have to say, it was tons of fun. Probably not smart, because I was definitely still sore on race day, but it reminded me of the benefit of getting back to basics. What initially got me into making physical activity a regular part of my life was group exercise classes, the fun music, the peppy instructors, and getting to know the other regulars in the class. That’s always something I can go back to whenever I get sick of training alone.

Anyway, long story short (too late!), I had a BLAST in Baltimore, and I’m so glad I did it. Baltimore is one hilly city, but I ran the entire way and even beat my marathon-time-cut-in-half by a good 20 minutes. (My time was 2:23:03, which means I ran at a 10:55/mile pace.) The crowd support was also great. My faves included a woman dressed up like a pirate holding a sign that said “AAARGH you ready to run!?,” a pee-wee football team called the Longhorns, and various locals offering runners free beer.

In conclusion, the excitement of the Baltimore Running Festival reminded me why I love participating in these kinds of events and why the training bug bit me in the first place. I’m still going to take that break, but I’m glad to end the season with a positive impression of races. It will be all the more exciting when I get back into it.