A year ago – no, more like six months ago – Nancy would have said there was no way she could ever do a half-marathon. But now, thanks to the YMCA training program, it feels like it might actually be a goal she can reach. Each Saturday they add a mile to the long training runs. During the week there are shorter runs which have also increased in distance over the training period. Once a month for the two months leading up to the half-marathon they have a race. Last month was a 5K and this past Saturday was a 10K.
Nancy ran the 10K in 1:01:25. A side stitch tried to get her at about mile 3, but slowing down a little and changing her breathing pattern made it go away. The funny thing about the 10K was that a month ago the 5K felt challenging; now it felt almost easy to reach that halfway point. Who knew? You keep at this and gradually you get better! Nancy will never set the world on fire with her land speed records but there is definitely improvement.
All you would-be runners out there who think you can’t do it – take it from Nancy: if she can do it, you can do it. She used to think she was going to die if she ran for 5 minutes; now she can run for an hour and a half. See if you can find a training program – that will help both mentally and physically. It’s harder to let yourself stop when everyone around you is continuing to run. Plus they set goals you can reach if you stick with it. This Saturday Nancy will be doing a 10 mile training run. She never thought that the word “runner” would apply to her but with determination, anything is possible.
What next? Learn to swim?
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