The Road to the Hershey Half- 3 weeks to train

April 2015- Completed my first 10K, and survived with no major injuries! Meaning, I had shin splints for a while, but they have for the most part gone away. My grandmother passed the day after, and while grieving her passing, my heart was not into running, or really moving at all, but I forced myself to get up and go to work.

Roger and I started talking about the Hershey Half Marathon, and jokingly I mentioned that it could be split up, because they offer a relay option. He could do half and I could do half. We laughing agree to split it. It would still be finisher medals for both, Hershey In the Dark tickets for both and tshirts for both. We left it at that and continued eating our French toast.

May 2015. I had 3 5Ks runs that month, Kat’s Angels, Kennett Run, and the Color Run. I kept up with some of my 10K training, but wasn’t overly worried. I started doing more weights and yoga, and again Roger and I talked about the Hershey half. I don’t know why we are not capable of being serious about this, but again, jokingly I said “So, which half are you doing of the Hershey Half?” at which he answered “Half? I say we do the whole race, and we do it together!” I laughed and said “Yeah right, I do not see myself running 13.1 miles…” and he said “We just have to train, we have all summer”.

After that conversation, anytime I would go near any fatty or sweet, he would say to me “that’s not half marathon food”. It got to be annoying! So when I finally agreed to the training, and doing the Hershey Half, the very first thing I said to Roger was “I do not ever want to hear you say again ‘that’s not Half marathon food’”. We signed up.

June 2015- Let the long runs begin. We started doing longer runs, Roger… who has become my coach and running partner… suggested increasing by 10% each week. He has completed 3 half marathons, and is one person who can for the most part keep up with me and my refusal to ever sit down. When I first met him, he swore to me that he was done with running, that he would at most do a 5K, but never longer than that. We did the Color Run together and He followed me to many 5Ks last year, in the heat and humidity, and snow and the rain, the cold and the snow. This year, he finally got tired of being an observer and has joined me for 3 5Ks and 1 10K this year. I am very proud of him!

Roger has also has talked me through weight training, and track exercise. We had done weight training before, and I want to admit that I have had a difficult time with the track exercises, they seem so silly and I feel completely ridiculous. I always do them, but almost always hate them.

But this track exercises have helped me, they have helped me a lot. I have improved my running speed by a lot. This year my best 5K time has been 25.30! Never in my life did I think I could run a 5K in that time. Before that I was averaging my best times at 27.30.

June was longer and longer runs. We hit 7 miles, we outgrew Wildwood Park, and had to find other places to run further distances. We started running in Hershey, the Jonathan Eshenaur Memorial Trail.

July 2015- We ran 9 miles! Training kept going. Running, weight training, log runs, cross training, track exercises. All done during the heat of July, only once we overslept, and we still did some running at Wildwood. That was a fun run!  It was blazing hot and humid, which gave me a new appreciation for summers in PA.

August 2015- Who would have ever thought I could *run* 10 miles! Looking at my Fitbit history, that was about how much distance I could cover in 3 active days! And now I can say that I ran/jogged/walked 10 miles!

In August I started running in the Harrisburg River front trails, which are crowded with lots of runners, and I love it!

Slightly increased from 10 miles. Hershey half drawing closer and closer.

I completed 10K, with better time than my Hershey 10K. And I’m still working on track exercises, weights and zumba. Trying to find time to add Yoga. 

September 2015

 

September is almost over!! Where did it go? This month has gone by really fast. I was supposed to increase my running by a lot, but between soccer practice, work and work, I have been slacking. I completed a 12.6 miles long run. I did stop a couple of times, but I still completed it! and keep telling myself that 12.6 is only .50 more to the half marathon distance.

3.5 weeks to go. Roger and I are doing a training 15K run… it’s not an official run, but maybe we can call it the Ana and Roger are Crazy 15K. Roger has promised medals and tshirts. We’ll see how that turns out.