2010 Running

I started running in May 2009. At first it was just to see if I could. Then I realized what a sense of accomplishment I had with each new distance I covered. 20 steps to 40 steps! Then on to 1/4 mile, then a half mile! After a month I could run a whole mile! I was amazed, awed and proud of myself. I ran my first 5K in July 2009 (for my birthday). I wasn't the fastest and I wasn't the slowest.
In the fall of 2009 my brother and sister-in-law came to visit. The weekend consisted of a 5K race and some relaxing. The race was interesting. I was the fastest woman...and my sister-in-law was the first in her age group!! We were the only two girls that ran :)

That weekend my sister-in-law thought it would be a great idea for us to run a half-marathon together - um, that's 13.1 miles. 10 more than I had ever done! But we sat down and planned which run we were going to do and what my training schedule should look like. I was in. We choose to do the Manhattan Half Marathon in NY in January 2010. NY was a halfway point between us.

I trained from October through January. My longest run (10 miles) I ran with my brother and his wife and their running group. It was a slushy run. It was a great run. I had done a lot of my training on my own (I was the only person I knew around me that ran) and it was nice having others to run with. I was grateful I had their support for my first long run.
January 2010 - Manhattan Half Marathon. It was two loops around central park. We started off together and we crossed the finish line together and it felt AMAZING! I don't remember how I felt mile to mile, it probably wasn't amazing at the time. I remember thinking we had been running a long time when we got to the start of the second loop. I remember looking at a sign that showed the temperature and wondered how I was running in 30 degree weather. I remember the three of us finishing together and how awesome that felt. A little like the feeling I had when I watched them finish their first marathon. But I was a part of that now.

This was my first big race, but not my last. 2010 was a year full of races. I ran some small races and I ran the Queens Half Marathon in the summer. I ran the same 5K I had run as my first race and placed in my age group. I ran the Mini 10K in NY in June where I met and got autographs from Kara Goucher and Paula Radcliffe.

2010 was a year of finding myself. I did long runs by myself, I went to races by myself, no one waiting for me at the finish line. I gained a sense of who I was and what I was capable of. If I can run a 10K in NY by myself, and meet Olympic runners...I can do just about anything,..or at least have the courage to try anything. This helped me survive the end of 2010, the end of my first marriage and a new beginning of my life.