Well last Sunday, September 23 was the Race for a Soldier. It was my first half-marathon. I finished in roughly 2.5 hours which is good for my first ever half.
| bib number: | 2196 |
| age: | 42 |
| gender: | M |
| location: | Gig Harbor, WA |
| overall place: | 694 out of 834 |
| division place: | 74 out of 85 |
| gender place: | 372 |
| time: | 2:34:12 |
| pace: | 11:46 |
I started this journey on June 19th with a 3 mile run that took me 35 minutes to complete. Four months of training for something I thought I would never do is something that I'm very proud of. I'm famous for not finishing anything I start.
One thing that kept me going all summer was my friend Katie. She was so inspired by the story behind the Race for a Soldier that she wanted to run it with me. We motivated each other, me here in Washington State and Katie in New Orleans. She flew in for the weekend and we ran it together, at times shuffling together, but we finished.
Having someone to share an experience with is very important. I've found that it made my training a heck of alot easier and I wasn't nervous about race day when it came up. I knew Katie was suffering through the training with me and suffering through 13.1 miles on race day.
We were using the same app and it had us running on the same days and the same distances. We would text or call each other on the days of our training runs and either complain or celebrate the run. It really really was a wonderful experience to share with such a great friend.
The moral of the story: If you have something you want to accomplish and you're not sure you can finish it, ask a friend to do it with you. It may be a whole new experience that you will never forget.
Thanks Katie!
