2013 Marathon Training: Week 1 Recap

Week 1 Recap

Okay, so I’m nearly a week behind here, but I still want capture my feelings/thoughts on the first OFFICIAL week of 2013 marathon training. Maybe next week I’ll be able to keep the rambling to a minimum.

1st CARA run thoughts:

Saturday morning, 5:15 am: Alarm goes off. Immediately regret every decision I’ve ever made to commit to this training program, yet get out of bed anyway. On my walk to the bus, I shockingly see two other women walking in running gear and shoe tags, apparently I wasnt the only human being awake prior to 6 am on a Saturday. ANYWAY, after throughly studying the Montrose Harbor map on my phone, I finally find the CARA meeting spot. Approximately 100 other runners were  kinda lining up near pace signs. I align myself to the 9:00/mile sign, fully feeling the ‘new kid at school’ nerves, and introduce myself to the others. Everyone was just beyond nice and friendly, swapping marathon stories, recounting the previous year of running. Actually, that was probably the best thing about the CARA training, an overwhelming feeling of community.

After some announcements, my group heads out. I spend the majority of the run chatting with a really nice dude who’s training with CARA for the fourth time. Everything was good and I was enjoying the change from my usual solo long runs. Then at mile 7, my chatting buddy started chatting with another dude. In order to not be the jackass running 3 wide on the path, I dropped back. The wheels started to fall off the wagon. With all of the excitement/stress of just trying to get to the meeting spot by 6:30 am, I neglected to actually mentally prepare myself to run 8 miles. Normally, I run by myself, I’m in ‘the mental zone’ the entire time. When you run without headphones with a group of people, you actually have to, ya know, pay attention to the world. I’ll be sure to be ready for this in the coming weeks. As we approach the finish/starting spot, I see that some of the other groups are starting to run up the large hill (Cricket Hill), and I think ‘wow, those people are hard core.’ Then, my group started to head toward the hill. My mind refused to accept it. I refused to run up the hill. Yep, completely wimped out. This moment of mental weakness has been haunting me ever since. SO, Cricket Hill, I hope you’re ready for me this week, because I refuse to let my mental weakness overcome my strength again.