Wow! It's been quite a while since I have updated you all on my progress with my journey to the Raleigh Rocks Half-Marathon. As you can see, I am still a standing human being :) No but really, this has been THE TOUGHEST CHALLENGE of my life. Tougher than any national cheerleading competition, any soccer match, or any vocal competition that I have ever competed in. And I've competed in a few tough ones. But, after 11 long weeks of training and sweating my eyes out, I am proud to say that I have dropped 16 pounds, one pant size, and three inches from my waist! I am sooooo excited to go shopping for my new body image.
This challenge has been the most grueling physical challenge that I have ever put my body through. I've had a few broken bones, shin splits, and injuries in my days as an athlete. And these complications just made things a bit tougher for me. I had about 6 days that I could not train at all because my legs and ankles were aching like no other. I felt like they were going to literally fall off. I would return from 4 and 5 mile runs with a little limp in my walk because I was in so much pain. But I was and still am determined to finish what I started.
Above all, I believe that the toughest challenge has been the mental one. I used to think of myself as a focused individual. Boy, did I know what I was in for?! 70% of training for any physical activity comes from your mentality. It takes immense focus to run an inclined trail for an entire hour. No matter how great your Itunes playlist is, a strong mentality will take you to higher heights. And this is one of the first things that I learned along the way. I also had a few set-backs in my personal life that "got me down" for a couple of days. As always, I turned the negative energy into passion to keep me going strong for the race. I mean come on people, running with bronchitis and a sinus infection is very challenging. Even now I am still struggling with some sickness, but I have learned that the best medicine for it is positive energy. Another critical issue that I deal with on a daily basis is time management. It is the most difficult thing in the world to take an hour out of my day to run knowing that I have a paper that is due the following day. I try my best to not make myself feel guilty for taking time out of my day to give my health some personal attention. But I have successfully learned how to manage my time and I am possibly looking at the best undergraduate academic semester I have ever seen!
Now, to the exciting part. The half-marathon race is 10 days away. I have so many butterflies in my stomach that I do not know what to do. I have worked so hard and I cannot wait to show the race what I'm made of. Some of my friends and family members will be along the trails to cheer me on. I am so delighted to be blessed with such amazing people that God has placed in my life to come along for the ride! I also wanted to update everyone with some information about the race. The Raleigh Rocks Half-Marathon race is being held on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 8am. This race trails runs from downtown to Hillsborough Street, past the famous North Carolina State University and Meredith College (my home!), through the North Carolina Museum of Art, and back down to the starting point in downtown Raleigh! I'm excited to show everything that I am made of and I cannot wait to cross the finish line on Saturday morning!
"A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts."
