Am I done with running?

Just as the entire town of Indianapolis winds down from the Mini weekend, my half-marathon training is also coming to a close. (I have to say, if I ever picked a year not to do the Mini, I'm glad it was this one! I heard several stories of people being forced to walk, stop altogether, or finish with much slower times than planned due to the heat/humidity.)

With two weeks until my race day, the only "long run" I have left is a 5 mile this coming weekend to begin the tapering. I wasn't able to squeeze in the 3rd of the 13-mile training runs I was scheduled to do this past weekend--we were in Chicago the entire time, and running 13 miles on a week day is basically impossible with my schedule. I think I'm just going to move on but up my mileage this week to make up for it. I completed all of the speed workouts in the program, which I think was the most important factor.


I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to beat my best time of 1:57 or not. The two practice 13 miles that I did were both right around 2:00. Sure, there wasn't really any adrenaline pumping for those, so that could work to my advantage on race day. Even with my shorter runs though, I feel like my body is really resistant to moving faster than a 9 min/mile pace. I guess we'll just have to see what happens. I won't be disappointed if I'm not able to set a PR, but I would be really thrilled to finish at 1:56.

I think after this race, my running days are over. Let me clarify that. I'll never give up running altogether as long as I can run. It's the best form of toning and stress relief that I've found. Hands down. But my running after May 19th is going to consist of just regular workout runs (6 miles and below), 5K's and maybe doing other half-marathons just to say that I can do the distance--without any time goals or extensive training. It's the training that I'm so weary of. This past weekend marked 4 years of me being out of college...which also means 4 years of training for 5 half-marathons and one full. There are people out there who run 2 half-marathons per year, every year, and more power to them. I'm not saying I won't run more of them, but it will be mainly for the experience. Secondly, I've really marked off all my major goals: running a half-marathon, running a half-marathon sub 2 hours, and running a full marathon. Shaving off a few more minutes of my finish times isn't going to be all that meaninful for me. I've already lined up a few shorter races throughout the year, so me "taking a break" from running, might not look anything like a break to most people. But, I can NOT WAIT to be free of a training schedule on my weekends!