How to Survive a Half Marathon
Guys. We did it. It’s over. We set the goal: to complete a half marathon, and, on March 2nd, it happened! We didn’t just complete it- we ran it. In two hours and nine minutes to be exact.
This process was a true mental test. That is not to say that the running part wasn’t hard- it was oh so difficult. At least for us unnaturals. But more than anything this tested our mental strength, perseverance, and commitment. We are so truly proud and happy to say that we made it through to the other side. And didn’t die.
It is so crazy to think back to July 2018 when we started a text convo about the possibility of signing up for a 10k. Let’s set an athletic goal for ourselves, we said. Just something to work towards since we aren’t natural runners. We figured it would take us outside our comfort zones and hey, it would be good for our hearts too. When we first started training, we couldn’t make it two miles. But we had paid our entry fee and we are cheap enough that this factor played a huge role in pushing us forward. The day we ran the 10K was huge! You can check out all the levels of commitment from that day here.
Just before the 10k race, another idea popped into our heads. If we’ve come this far in a few months and made this happen, then what if we tried something bigger? What if we signed up for a half? Honestly, we laughed a lot about it. We were not made for running and it wasn’t made for us, so the idea of us completing a half seemed like a joke. But with some wine causing overzealous ego inflation, we decided to sign up for the Myrtle Beach Half right then and there. Wine gets you in trouble, people. We almost signed up for the half in Savannah in April, but thank you, Jesus, we didn’t. Don’t think we could have handled another month of this life. Anyway, we digress. We figured we could do six miles at that current time, so we just needed to keep moving. Below you can see a sick video montage of our progress. By progress, we might just mean complaining.
We thought we’d make a whole weekend out of it in Dirty Myrtle. And we sure did. We hardly slept Friday evening and were up at 5 am on Saturday. We ate, we sat in the dark, we prayed. We got out to the start line and were underway at 7 am. As Forrest Gump said WE JUST FELT LIKE RUNNING. Just kidding- we were nervous as hell and sure didn’t feel like running. But the race route was actually quite lovely (it helps to see the ocean when you run) and the weather was perfect (thanks, God), so all in all it was a great day for it. Miles 10 and 11 hit us like a ton of bricks. Were they ever going to end?! We weren’t convinced they were. But they did. It’s hard to really put into words how incredible it was to cross the finish line. We had run 13 miles before, just to show ourselves that we, in fact, could, but this was different. So many people were cheering us on and this was the exact moment we had been working towards. Seriously, it was magical. You can see evidence below.
What made this whole thing even more special was that we did it together. Sounds cheesy, and maybe it is, but tough tits. Training with a buddy made everything so much better (and more tolerable). It made finishing together that much sweeter. And it was certainly a bonding experience. We can say with certainty that there were moments where the other person had to be strong for us, hold us accountable, and give intense pep talks. We don’t know if we would encourage everyone to run a half marathon, although you definitely could if we can. We also know we won’t be doing another one- stop telling us we will be addicted, people, it ain’t happening. BUT we feel blessed to have done this with each other and to be checking it off the ol’ bucket list. We are going to go ice our legs now.
***GIVEAWAY*** During our training we found several items to be absolute necessities for our long runs (at least for us they were). We want to celebrate the end of this painful/ fulfilling experience by giving away these goodies to one of you cool cats. The giveaway will start on 3/14/19. Make sure you head over to our Instagram (adventuresofagingerandablonde) tomorrow to enter!
