I Just Felt Like Running.

That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run.

Ok, that's a lie. I definitely had a reason for running today. One of my goals this year was to run a half-marathon (or a full one, but I'm not ready for that one...yet), and I am happy to say that I did it! I participated in the 2014 Rock 'n' Roll Chicago Half-Marathon this past weekend.

It was incredibly fun, and I was so glad that I was able to participate! I've never really considered myself a "runner" before training for this race. I'll admit, I'm decently fast, but I never really enjoyed running. I have done a few 5 and 10k's, and they were fun, but nothing about the running itself excited me. Once I started training for this race I realized just how peaceful running was. I found myself going on runs when I felt bad, or when I was bored, or if I just wanted to get out of the house. It became one of the few times in a day where I was able to not have to think about anything! Running became therapeutic, and that's when it started to become fun!

Not everything about training for this race was easy though. Injuries. Fatigue. Lack of time. All of those things can knock you off track so easily. You start to make excuses (and boy, did I made them) for why you can't run, and try to justify them to yourself. It was hard to stay true to yourself/you training schedule, but I soon realized how much it set you back to skip a few runs.

Training taught me to push myself to do things I never really thought I could do before. It taught me to push myself to run farther than I have ever run in my life. It taught me that I was faster that I actually thought I was. It taught me to run through pain. And most importantly, it taught me how to be more mentally tough.

Going into this race, I set a "baseline goal" of 1:59:00 and a "stretch goal" of 1:40:00. Sadly, I didn't quite make my stretch goal, but my final time of 1:45:50 was under my baseline goal and is very respectable! I'm proud of myself, but now I have a faster time to try and reach one day in the future! In the meantime, I am just going to keep running.

Who wants to run with me?

2014 Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon Finisher's Medal