Farewell to the Half Marathon Distance

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There's been only one other time where I've gone out and completed a run over 20k by myself. As this past Sunday approached, I knew that I would be doing it again and to be perfectly honest, I was nervous.

At this point I know 21.1km like the back of my hand. After 19 half marathons and countless training runs I know what every second of a run of that length feels like and I still mostly prefer to do it with a group. On the schedule for Sunday was 23km. I've only run more than a half marathon one time and that was with Nikki during her ultra training. Obviously I knew training for a full marathon we were headed in that direction, but it still feels like an unknown for me. It's exciting and terrifying all at the same time. 

I had to be home around 8:00AM to take my Great Grandma to the airport who had been visiting this past week. So, at about 5:15AM I walked out my back door somewhat half asleep and began my run.

I always complain about getting up at the crack of dawn but once I'm actually awake I hardly ever regret it. There's something amazing and so serene about waking up before the rest of the world. The silence, the empty streets, the sound of my shoes hitting the pavement...

I took this picture at only about 2km in, this portion of the run is also the first half of my usual 8km route. I thought because I run this section so often it would drag along especially since I had so much further to go but I actually felt awesome. 

The first 10km flew by and then I got a text from a fellow runner, Nikki. We had planned to start running at the same time and text each other along the way to stay motivated since we were both running alone. But since I had to get up earlier we were at different parts of our run, I'm glad we still managed to connect though.

It was great to know that someone else was out there doing the exact same thing, and those little texts helped the kilometers slip away.

Before I knew it, I only had about 7km to go and I was on my favorite stretch of the whole run. 

It was turning into a beautiful day but it was getting warm, another reason I was happy to have started so early. Special thanks to all the people that had their sprinklers on, very refreshing!

After all that it surprisingly didn't seem like long before I was back at home amazed that 23km went by so easily. 

I had some chocolate milk and then jumped in the shower so I could take my Great Grandma to the airport.

I needed a run like that. I've been struggling lately but I know from past experience that sometimes all it takes is one awesome run to turn your training around. I've regained some of my confidence and I'm even considering a few more solo long runs in the next few weeks.