Most people who decide to start running set a goal. They may choose to start running with the goal to run at least 1 mile every other day. Or they might go out on the internet and find a "Couch to 5K" training program with the goal to run a 5K with some friends in the near future. It would be that rare person who would suddenly decide that they wanted to run a half marathon having never really trained seriously for any type of road race. I can tell you that when Mara decides to do something, she goes all in. Needless to say I wasn't surprised. Instead I encouraged her to start running gradually and to build up over time.
Being a Disney fanatic, Mara had set her sights on running one of the Disney Halfs. She informed us that she had found a training program on the Disney website and was going to follow that program. Again, we didn't discourage her. We just cautioned her to take it slow. Mara among her other health issues has asthma and acid reflux. Neither of which are conducive to a running lifestyle. But she is 18 years old and doesn't think of these things as barriers to her goal. Mara will just work around them. She always has succeeded when she set her mind to something.
When we would Skype with her, she would always talk about how she was sticking to her workout routines. She would talk excitedly about how "buff" she was getting. It was really great to see how excited she was about this new found hobby. TCU has a newly renovated recreation center. When I was there it was known as the Rickel Building. Now the Rec Center has a purple indoor track, a 12,000-square-feet weight room, an indoor pool, an outdoor pool with a hot tub, a 1,000-square-feet climbing wall and locker rooms with a sauna. Mara goes over there and uses the treadmills and elliptical to get her miles in.
After a few weeks of continuous training, I suggested that she think about signing up for a 5K race near campus so that she could get a feel for what a road race is like before signing up for a half marathon. Surprisingly, she thought that was a good idea. I then asked if she would like to run one when I was going to be visiting her on Parents Weekend. There is always a 5K being run somewhere almost every weekend. She told me that she would like that but cautioned me that she was not as fast as me. I have never thought of myself as fast. I assured her I just wanted to run with her no matter what her pace would be on race day.
We signed up for a small 5K race in Arlington, Texas called the Trailblazer III Two-Fifths Marathon & 5K. It was described as a flat fast course on a trail in River Legacy Park. It said that the 5K course was mostly tree lined which I thought would be really nice. Mara thought so too. The entry fee was only $20 per person and Mara would get her first race T-shirt. I told her just to keep training but to rest at least the two days before the race.
The race director started us a little later than expected. This put a little pressure on us as we didn’t want to miss kick-off. The other issue was that Mara had forgotten to bring her inhaler with her. I told her that we should just take it slow and see how it goes. Her goal was to run it in 45 minutes which was definitely doable. I was just a little concerned about her asthma acting up. The gun finally went off about 9:00 a.m. and we headed out on the trail.
It was a really flat course and tree lined as promised. Even though I wanted to go out slow, the excitement of the race caused us to go a little faster than we wanted and we finished the first mile in a little over 10 minutes. I pulled the pace back a bit. When we got close to 2 miles, Mara was having a little trouble breathing so we took a short walk break and then started running again. We had to take a couple of short walk breaks during the last mile. But when we saw the 3 mile marker, Mara wanted to run hard the last 1/10 of a mile. We picked up the pace and pushed to the finish line.
We finished the race in 35:03 and 11:17 per mile pace. Mara was so excited to have finished and had crushed her goal time by 10 minutes. She was grinning from ear to ear. We got some water and headed to the car so we could get back down to my in-laws to shower. She called her Mom on the way and I could tell how proud she was of her accomplishment. She should be. So many people say they are going to go out and run a 5K race and then chicken out in the end. Mara could have decided not to run when she realized she didn’t have her inhaler. But, Mara is one tough girl and she was going to run this race no matter what.
As a long time runner, I get real pleasure out of helping other runners meet their goals. When I have been at 5K and 10K races in the past, I loved seeing new runners complete their first race. You can see the excitement their eyes as they cross that finish line. They now know the feeling of accomplishment that all of us runners feel when we race no matter how fast or slow we run. Pretty soon they will be doing 5Ks and 10Ks regularly because they have become addicted to a healthy running lifestyle that will facilitate their health and happiness for the rest of their lives. I am sure that Mara has caught the bug and I am looking forward to running a race with her in the future. Do I hear “Turkey Trot!”
Sept. 3 – 6.00 miles (54:17, 9:03 pace)
Sept. 4 – 3.20 miles (24:48, 7:45 pace) – Speed Work
Sept. 6 – 5.10 miles (46:16, 9:04 pace)
Sept. 8 – 9.10 miles (1:19:37, 8:45 pace)
Sept. 9 – 7.10 miles (1:04:49, 9:08 pace)
Sept. 11 – 3.20 miles (25:30, 7:58 pace) – Speed Work
Sept. 13 – 5.20 miles (41:39, 8:01 pace) – Tempo Run
Sept. 14 – 6.10 miles (53:30, 8:46 pace)
Sept. 15 – 9.20 miles (1:22:50, 9:00 pace)
Sept. 16 – 7.20 miles (1:04:17, 8:56 pace)
Sept. 17 – 5.20 miles (46:46, 8:57 pace)
Sept. 18 – 3.20 miles (24:39, 7:42 pace) – Speed Work
Sept. 20 – 5.10 miles (48:14, 9:28 pace)
Sept. 22 – 3.10 miles (35:01, 11:19 pace) – Trailblazer III Two-Fifths Marathon & 5K, Arlington, TX
Sept. 24 – 6.30 miles (55:40, 8:49 pace)
Sept. 25 – 3.20 miles (24:22, 7:37 pace) – Speed Work
Sept. 28 – 5.20 miles (41:40, 8:00 pace) – Tempo Run
Sept. 30 – 6.60 miles (59:03, 8:57 pace)
Total Miles: 99.3 miles
2012 YTD Miles: 1097.1 miles
