They say being held accountable makes things happen, so here I am, making it official: I will be running the Busan Half Marathon on October 5, 2014!
Or let’s put it this way: at the very least, if all goes wrong, I am running the Busan 10K on October 5th, 2014!
For whatever reason, a half marathon lately hasn’t felt like A Big Deal as much as it quite honestly should. I should be terrified or something but for whatever reason, I’m not. I’m going for the low and slow, don’t get hurt, try your best school of philosophy. I’m channeling my fave blogger, Elise (see her race reports from her two half marathons here and here) who trained but didn’t panic for one, and didn’t train as much for the second.
Barring injuries (which despite my seemingly casual attitude, I am planning to be very careful about), the very worst that happens is that I don’t finish the race, but probably run further than I ever have before and am in better shape than I am currently. The best case is that I achieve an exciting goal, run further than I ever have before and am in better shape than I am currently. I believe this is what they call a win/win.
I’ve said it before, but this is why I love goal setting so much. It inspires me to try things I’ve never tried before and push myself further. If it hadn’t been patiently sitting on my goals list for so long, slowly convincing me that running a half marathon is just as approachable as having a beautiful picnic, I’m sure I’d be panicking a lot more right now. But as it is? I’m fine, even though my app is currently angry at me for officially starting my training so late to the game.
I’m using the Coach program on my favourite app Nike+ to train for this half. It’s prescribing me about 4-5 runs a week until the race, plus a rest day and a cross training day. It’s a lot, of course, but I’m just trying my best. Already it’s been such a great motivation to know I have an official race to train for – much more so than a vague goal like “get in shape” or “run further”.
I think I’m feeling calm because I know exactly what I have to do and exactly how much time I have to do it in. Specificity rules. Also, I’m not hanging expectations on this race – ideally, I just want to finish. Stay tuned and wish me luck!
