In Sept of 2013 I thought I would be ambitious and sign up for my first half marathon after completing my first 10k (Brewers 10k). Well almost 8 months later, we are less than one month away to that race: the Rock N Sole Half Marathon. Where I hope to make it to the finish and earn this:
I'm going for the big blue one to the right.
So up until now I have not followed any training plan. Most weeks I have intended to run more than once, but something always came up. The furthest I had ever run was 6.35 straight and no offense but 6.35 is no where near 13.1. So this weekend I had to suck it up and finally smash 6.35 and go the distance, literally.
Sat morning I got up around 8:15 and totally was dragging, how would I ever run more than 6 miles thing morning, let alone 1 mile. But I knew I could not cop out, this was my last chance to see what I could do. I was so scared I would not make it 13.1 I was panicking this past week. Seriously, Friday I was wondering if I should drop down to the quarter marathon. But I was like NO, you signed up for the half, no excuses. I decided to try out my Salted Caramel GU, I would be close to home incase there was any stomach issues. I strapped on my water belt and headed out.
I decided to just run the neighborhood, there were so many people outside mowing the lawn I never felt alone. Just so you know my neighborhood is kind of small. I would say a big circle around it, without the side streets, is 1.5 miles tops. The day before I plotted out 8 miles on map my run, yeah totally did not stick to that at all. I headed through my neighborhood and could feel the GU kick in, I was feeling good. This was also my first attempt at Galloway method and I was doing 2 minutes run/ 1 minute walk. As I was running through the neighborhood I started getting toe pain about mile 4, which I think was due to my laces being too tight. I was seriously doubting I was going to make it 4 more miles! Some how I just kept going and going. Finally at 8 I said I would stop at 9, but then at 9 I just wanted to walk 10 to see what my pace would be, incase I had to walk at the half and needed to avoid getting picked up by the slow bus by walking less than a 16 min mile. I finished in 2:19:00, not too bad I thought.
Well I felt pretty good when it was over, that I finally did it! I walked in the door and "L" wanted to hug me, I stunk and hurt so that was not a good idea. First word out of my mouth was "Does it smell like pee in here?" Well I guess it was me, prob not pee but you get the drift. I also realized you see some odd things when you run the neighborhood like 15 times. I saw a house with a weird trail of bagels in the driveway. About 15 bagels all lined up, not sure what that was all about but they looked like perfectly good bagels. So when all is said and done I think I will make it 13.1 next month, come hell or high water I am trucking it over those hills and making it upright to the finish. I hope to run the first 2 miles then kick the Galloway into gear once the crowds have cleared.
Have you finished a distance run using the Galloway method? Any advice?
