Training a big girl

I ran my first 1/2 marathon in over 2 years Sunday. I was nervous as hell I wasn't going to be as good... I'd lost my timing or even worse.. I wouldn't enjoy it as much as I used to - but none of that happened. In fact, I rocked it and I LOVED every moment of it. From picking up my number and getting that pre-race excitement at the expo, to not sleeping all night planning my strategy because I was so excited to run, .. to actually taking off down Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan in Chicago. I was energized by it all.

It had its bumps along the way.. including my cab driver getting lost among the dozens of cabs taking runners to the race, somehow mine didn't know how to follow others, and I ended up running in about a mile to the starting line, through the Southside Chicago.. which if you've been there, not really an area people would get up at 5 am to run through. I got to the race 26 minutes after the start and just hauled ass. It ended up being a great thing.... Running an 8+ minute mile, I caught up to my new running buddy Nadia, who also had a bit of a late start to the event and also ran my normal pace of a 10:30 minute mile. It was her first race, and I was feeling frazzled so we joined forces and ran together. We killed it.

For the next 8 miles we kept a very respectable 9:30 -10:00 minute mile. We talked running, training, careers, sharing more importantly what was on our respective playlists and visions of how great the beer garden was going to be once we hit the finish line.

We crossed the finish line in 2hrs 30mins.. no stopping, no walking.. just hard core, big girl running.

As I thought about the run after.. sitting in the beer garden, drinking my nasty victory beer - which at that moment...was the best thing I ever tasted - I thought to myself.. I did well because I really worked at it. I trained really hard. 5 - 6 days a week I hit the gym and ran my miles, at least 45 minutes to an hour a day of running. I did all my long runs, and cross training... all the work I was supposed to do to prepare for a run of that distance - and it paid off.

I reminded myself, Big Girl will go the same way. I'm an entrepreneur "in training". If I put in the time, have the dedication to do the work, prepare, build some strong business muscle and take some time to step back and "stretch" from time to time -  I'll rock the business race just like I did with this first half marathon.

Cheers to Nadia for getting me through, and cheers to all the other runners out there, giving everything they have to the time they are running... you're all rockstars!