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Marathon Race Crew
Yesterday morning, I volunteered, along with a fun bunch of my fellow track athletes, at our town’s annual marathon. Community service is a requirement for our school’s athletic department, and a marathon seemed like a pretty sweet gig for a distance runner like me to volunteer at! I was stationed at the finish line handing out medals, water bottles and gatorades to the runners.
Hardware!
Watching people young and old come through the finish line after completing 26.2 miles only made me more excited for when I can train for marathons. We stood at the finish line until the very last runner came through, enjoying the beautiful views. No cell service here!
Some of the marathon sponsors had booths set up with free samples. I was SUPER excited to try a new muscle milk: Light Vanilla Latte.
The vendor said it had a hint of chai! I saved it for lunch but was incredibly disappointed that I couldn’t finish one sip – GROSS. :( Just a water bottle for meee please!
I don’t know if us volunteers worked up an appetite from all our cheering or we were just bored. Luckily there was plenty of race fuel sitting around……
All around a good experience but, sounding like a broken record, I would rather be IN THE RACE than on the sidelines. Got to see some very cool and inspiring people cross the finish line. One older man carried his wife across the finish line. A few people got off-course and ended up running 28 miles. There were some pretty wild and fantastic outfits too! Any day that I get to spend in the forest surrounded by people running and challenging themselves is a good day :)
Give Me A Reason
How do you know if you’ve succeeded if you never had a goal? Working out and staying fit is great for your health’s sake, but I feel like I need an alternate purpose to work towards as well. I love being healthy, but that ultimately came as a result from my training for competition in cross country and track. Had I not been so involved in athletics, I don’t know if I would have had the same strict outlook on exercise and nutrition.
Fitness goals are important to keep you constantly motivated. Whether its weight loss, a race, being able to do a pull-up!
My short-term goal: to get into competition shape by outdoor track season. For us, that begins in mid-March. That will be approximately 3 months after my next surgery, and I have my heart and head set on a 10k PR by May. That’s a big goal, which makes every little effort count. From fueling up right, to getting enough sleep, to building muscle strength, coordination, flexibility and endurance. The rush of setting a personal record will be totally worth it. :)
Long-term goal: to become a marathoner. I’ve always known I was going to run marathons post-college. That’s the next step for a distance runner! I’ve done half-marathons, and I’ve done 16-mile runs. But never have I attempted the 26.2 mile challenge. I see myself training for at least one marathon a year…how I plan on doing that with a full-time job, I don’t know. But where there’s a will there’s a way!
Working towards something, knowing that every work out is getting you closer towards your ultimate goal, gives those early morning gym sessions or plank workouts a purpose!
So what are you working towards?
My Cross Country Season’s Somber Beginning
Today’s post is a little more serious than previous ones. I promise to amp up the optimism tomorrow! But in case you didn’t know, I am a cross country and track athlete currently on a collegiate NCAA Division I team. In May, I completed my freshman year with a 10k in the outdoor track & field conference championships. Today, I would/should be moving back to school to begin our team’s fall training had I not had this major surgery last month.
After the surgery on the left side of my face to remove as much of my venous malformation as possible, I was left extremely swollen (as to be expected with any surgery this intense). I was told not to engage in any physical activity for at least 3 weeks. Do you know how hard that is for an exercise addict??! That is like telling me to give up coffee! It was a tough situation: I need to heal to be able to run; I need to run to be able to heal.
I’m finally breaking out of the sit-wait-hope phase – yesterday I jogged for the first time in over 5 weeks! Granted, it was two very slow miles. A “warm-up” to my usual workouts. But it was more than I had run in a month, and I didn’t have any pain so I can continue to build up from here!
I’m sad to be missing out on the team activities, practices and bonding that will be going on at school for the next 9 days while I stay home and continue to heal. I feel like a benchwarmer. Except I’m not on the bench…I’m not even in the stinkin’ ball park! It has made me realize how much running is a part of my life. It’s something I’ve done EVERYDAY for 5 years, of course it is a part of my heart. High school races were such a rush… the ones where I broke a personal record or beat someone I didn’t think I could – I STILL look back on those with pride.
I am positive that there will be more races like this in my future. No doubt I will have to work overtime to play catch up, but I’ve done it before and I know I can do it again. I can’t wait to be reunited with my school and my team <3
(*These pictures were all taken before the surgery. I am not using post-surgery photos of my face until it has healed much more.)
