I ran my first half-marathon and did not train for it

 

I participated in half-marathon and finished! They say if you are not a runner, running in a marathon may be the dumbest thing to do. My boyfriend George is a runner and participates in these types of races every other weekend. My friend Thais told us she joined this race called “Rock the River” that was local and for us to sign up. Of my course my boyfriend was all in but this time he was asking me to join since my friend would be participating too. It's always been on my bucket list to join a race but NEVER a race this big. I’m no runner. George and I go running every so often but it is not something I do consistently like he does. It had been around 2 weeks since I ran prior to the race. I KNOW. CRAZY.

The night before my race I started googling ''running a race without much training'' and one of the first things I read is “this may cause injury”, but I knew I was going to succeed, and I knew the sore pains would heal. The morning of the race came.

I didn’t need to go fast.

I just needed to jog.

 

 

The lack of training meant that my ribs would hurt and soon my legs would start to hurt too.

I was ok with testing my endurance and knew that if I needed to walk I was going to walk. I gave up at mile 8 not because my body wouldn’t allow me to keep running but my knees had given out. Every time I wanted to run I had this throbbing pain in both of my knees. I walked as fast as I could from mile 8 to 13.  I started to do math in my head and sing songs to distract myself. The scenery where the race had started under the George Washington bridge had miles and miles of views of the Hudson River and NYC skyline. It made the journey all more worth it and peaceful. As I was on my hike I eventually was by myself.  Every runner was so spread apart on the path. Some I would see from time to time and some would disappear on the path. 

 

There was water given at every 2 miles. Every time I would see one of those coming up it felt like heaven. As I was approaching the loop which was about half way in,  I saw runners heading back who had gotten to the half way mark way before me. My boyfriend was one of these runners all drenched but running all cool and collected. We passed each other, he was on full running mode and I was starting to jog slower and slower.

When I looked around the half way mark I saw an elderly man who was on his way to the half way mark. He shakes his head and says to me “it's not easy” I said to him your not far from the half way mark it's almost time to turn around”! He later on catches up to me as we approach mile 11. I couldn’t believe a man of his age was in this race. I thought maybe he did this in his younger years and has good stamina. It inspired me.

 

The last 2 miles seemed like they were going forever. Eventually I made it back to that view of the George Washington Bridge and could see the big finish line under it. I starting limping but pushed myself to make it through. I did it!

George made it to the finish line 5th place. I was one of the last runner's but that didn't even matter because I was PROUD. 

I would definitely recommend doing a race, BUT train at your own risk! The human body is an amazing thing and you know yours better then anyone else so listen to it. I am lucky I didn’t get injured. An experience like this changed my life and I am happy that I crossed this off my bucket list. Now, here we are 3 days later, still sore but the experience and excitement made it all worth it.