A Year of Running, Laughing and Questionable Decisions

As the year comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to pause, reflect, and celebrate how far we’ve come. Life moves fast, and in the hustle, we can forget to acknowledge the large or small victories and lessons that shape us.

So today, I have been thinking about the year and reflecting on my nutrition and health in 2024. I want to share my journey with you. This is less on nutrition this time and more on my fitness journey. Hopefully, you can relate in some areas but really, I want you to eye roll and laugh with me as I tell you a little story about my journey this past year.

This year was focused on half marathon training. I have to insert the caveat that I was not a runner. I have never enjoyed running. I have never had the “runner’s high”. I thought it was boring. I could never understand why anyone would want to run for miles. Ewww! Side note, my brother is a marathon running machine. The guy runs almost daily. Many 5K races I have participated in have been with him and his family. Both of our families have traveled to running events to cheer him on and post-race celebrate together over the years.

The obvious question that you all must be wondering is, “Why did you train for a half marathon if you don’t like running?” I got this question a lot. The short answer is that I make questionable decisions after a drink (or two). Whahhh? I know! Here’s how it went down.

The first part is that my husband, John, started running in 2021 or 2022 due to his own health concerns. I have been really proud watching the changes in his health journey and every once in a while, I would join him for a morning run. We started to run 5K races together. It was something we could do together and, in some ways, made our marriage stronger. We ran the Chicago Abbott 5K race before the Chicago marathon in Oct 2022 together. This was our first 5K where we ran all 3 miles together. No walking for this girl! I was so proud of myself and even more for him! Afterwards, he told me he was thinking about pushing himself to a 10K or half marathon training. Go nuts! I’ll stick to my weight lifting over here. At this point, further distance running was just tickling his brain but not sure if that was something he wanted to do yet. Enter me.

The second part and the real part of the story is that I met up with my sister-in-law for an after-work drink sometime in Jan or Feb 2024. While we were catching up, she says so off handedly that she signed up for a half marathon. What?! Her running was equal to my running. Some running with some walking and maybe mostly walking. We happily walked a downhill 1-mile fun run being the very last people to cross the finish line in previous years. We reminisced and laughed about it. She said it was only a $5 dollar registration. Even if she walks it or comes in dead last, it’s only $5.

Enter my brain (fueled by drink #1) for a moment. Her and I have ran/walked together in fun races and she was my pace. We don’t run/walk for targeted time or placing or winning metals. It’s just one way for us to “hang out”. We could hang out during a half marathon! That could be fun! No pressure. Just hanging out. THEN I had the brilliant idea to rope my husband into it because, nothing says fun like a family half marathon!

Do you see where the alcohol could have, maybe, probably impacted my decision making here?

By drink #2, I was texting with John: “We have a great idea! Let’s run/walk this half marathon to hang out. It will be sooooo fun!” He being of sound mind and reason did his due diligence in explaining to me that a half marathon was 13.1 miles. “That’s a lot of a training. I thought you didn’t like running. Are you sure you want to do this?”

In the end, I said sign us up. We have 10 months to train. That’s plenty of time. It’s only $5. He hesitantly signed us up. Race day was set for Nov 2^nd. All while sitting at a bar.   

If any of you are runners out there, you are probably shaking your head. In the days to come, so did I.

I had never trained for long distance running before. I was both nervous and excited. I was training for something I never in a million years would have thought I would ever attempt. I wanted to make sure that I was fueling my body the best way possible. I wanted to make sure that I was allowing my body adequate rest so that I would not get injured. I wanted to be mentally strong to endure and push myself. I wanted to be my healthiest I have ever been to run the race.

Let’s be honest, thinking all those things and having the intentions in January/February was easy. Putting practices in place and maintaining them throughout the year was the real challenge. I started the year off to a good start just like I think a lot of well-intended individuals do after making a New Year’s Resolution. I limited alcohol, dining out, sugary treats, etc. I had an early morning training plan. I trained with a running coach to include running strength and stretch training. I slept 7-8 hrs every night and took rest days. I planned and prepared meals so I always had food on hand. Crushed it!

Then spring and summer came along with warmer weather. That’s when the challenges started for me.

Challenge #1: Camping weekends

We love camping! These weekends for my family have been what I can write now, an excuse for buying less nutritious food options. Chips and cookies for snack options have been a staple. We still ate chips and cookies but we quickly realized we needed better options. We needed to plan better for more fruits and veggies, along with balanced meals.

Challenge #2: Alcohol

I enjoy a seltzer by the pool, lake, or campfire. A seltzer by the pool or campfire sounds harmless, but trust me, even one drink can make the next morning’s run feel like dragging a fridge uphill.

I could physically feel how my food choices impacted my running performance. If I ate a heavy meal the night before, I felt sluggish. My legs felt heavier, my breathing was more labored, and I couldn’t run as fast or as far as my previous run when I ate take out, greasy, cheesy food. Summer barbeques, pool time, lake time, vacations, etc. can be the hardest time when we want to make good healthy choices. And when you introduce alcohol into the equation, the healthy choices can go completely out of the window. See above regarding my decision making after 1 drink. How to tackle summer time will be in a future blog. For now, just know that even as a coach, we too face the same obstacles, which is how we know exactly how you feel.  

By the end of summer it was HOT. I was getting up at 4:30 am to run before the sun turned the pavement into lava. This is where I struggled mentally. I was checking out. I was tired. I was grumpy. The runner’s high was a myth and bull shit in my opinion. I was going to bed at 8pm so I could get up at 4:30am IN THE MORNING. Normal people call that night time. I couldn’t always get to sleep so I was going on less hours of sleep. This was not a fun end to my summer. We adjusted some running days so that we could run after work in the gym for an AC break. I was mentally done training but I still had 2 more months to go. This was by far the hardest part of the year.

This is when I started journaling. I needed some me time. I wanted to reflect on why I was training. If I was so miserable, why didn’t I just quit? It was only $5. I could just quit. I would be a great cheerleader for John. I needed to balance my work life, my training life, my business life, my school life, and my family life. I had so much going on in the middle of training. I’m not even sure how I balanced it all. One day at a time. Somehow, I pushed through. Looking back, it was a lot of family support and encouragement. Having a support system really helped me stick to my goal. Having someone to train with me, to push on the hard days, and celebrate after good or bad days was exactly what I needed. I fully recognize now that I need a support system. I would not have pushed through without having someone running beside me.

Thank goodness cool weather finally moved in for fall. Running got a little easier even though we were running further. It was easier to get up in the morning running in cooler weather. The summer fun was calming down and there was more time in the evenings. However, new challenges presented themselves in the final weeks. I finally fell! Yep. It was just a matter of time before I would face plant on the sidewalk. I didn’t face plant. Thank goodness! I turned a corner just right and tripped over my own feet and landed on one knee and palms pretty good. On one hand I felt like a little kid when they scrape a knee. Brush off the dust and keep going which is what I initially did. On the other hand, falling as an adult is not like falling as a kid. Maybe it doesn’t hurt as bad or maybe we just ignore the hurt to keep playing. I eventually cut the run short to bandage my knee and bruised ego. And, of course, the bruise and scab would be in the bendiest part of the knee where every time I would try to run the scab would reopen. It took forever to heal! Didn’t it use to take like a day? Regardless of my battle wound, we were getting excited partly to run the race but to also be finished training.

Race week came and all of us watched the weather every day, multiple times a day to see what conditions we would have race morning. Texts and emails went back and forth. No rain…there’s going to be rain…everyone pray real hard. That week was the most beautiful fall week of sunny skies and highs in the 50s to mid 60s. The weekend forecast bounced from a little rain, a lot of rain, freezing rain to no rain to it will definitely maybe be a full ass rain storm. Temperatures fluctuated from maybe 30 to maybe 50 to maybe 40 to definitely a cold front coming through. To anyone that lives in the Midwest…you get it. To others in a less moody climate, I wish I could say that I am making this shit up. I had to pack for every single scenario. Will I be dry but warm or dry but cold or wet but warm or wet but cold? Needless to say, there was nothing I could have packed to prepare me for the actual day. Would the weather hold on for just one more day?

The day before the race, I was a spaz. I’m going to admit it. I was excited and anxious. I wanted to take in everything. I trained for this and I was going to eat it up! I bought nearly every single marathon apparel that was offered including the blanket. I took pictures with nearly every single marathon sign I could find. I took all the free merch that was being handed out at the conference center for packet pick up. I looked at all the vendor booths and talked to vendors. Take a moment to remember the scene in the movie Elf with Will Ferrell, where he says “I just like to smile, smiling’s my favorite.” That was probably me. Just smiling and vibrating with energy.  

The night before the race we watched social media posts about weather. They were providing updates on what would happen if they canceled the race. I think every person had a different weather app to watch radar and get all the various options. We ate a meal we typically eat before our longer runs of pasta, spinach, mushrooms, chicken breast, with a sprinkle of chili flakes and shredded parmesan cheese. One of our favorites! Surprisingly we were able to sleep that night.

We were all in our morning run routine so we were up and moving by 5am to get the coffee brewing. Everyone got back on their weather apps to check the weather…again. And again we all got a different weather forecast. We stepped outside to look at the sky because overnight we became wizards or farmers or anyone that can look at a sky and “know” the weather for the day. It was a beautiful morning at 5am with no sign of rain. I have to write that again. At 5am, it was a beautiful fall morning! No wind, no rain, perfect temperature. I could have started the race then. Insert the smiling face.  

Back to reality. Weather radar showed rain nearby. So now we are preparing for rain. We don’t know the extent of the rain though. Some apps had a misty rain. Some apps had heavy rain. I have to take a moment and share that my biggest fear about running this half marathon was the weather. I don’t do cold or rain or snow or ice. Insert Sarah McLachlan SPCA commercial here. I’m out! At 7am on race morning, only 1 hour from race start, I was actually thinking about not running.

Obviously, I didn’t go back to bed! That would be a terrible story! But I thought about it and that is very humbling to tell you.

At 7:30am we left to drive to the race start. That beautiful 5am morning had become cooler and it was just starting to sprinkle. By 7:50am it was full on rain. There was no getting out of it. It was now or never. I was going to run 13.1 miles in the rain. It’ll be fine!

The race started at 8am sharp. Even in the rain John and I had smiles on our faces and we just ran. We talked to people along the way. We thanked every single volunteer we saw in the rain. We thanked everyone we saw cheering us in the rain. We talked to each other. We joked. We laughed. We stayed on pace. I felt really good until around mile 10. This is where we couldn’t jump over or get around the water puddles. My feet were squishing in my shoes, my clothes were completely dripping wet, rain was dripping off my hat and hair. Then it got cold. Real cold. At that point you just push. All you think about is the finish line. Will I see it at the next turn? Will I see it down this next hill? And then it’s there. And suddenly the race is over. It’s over.

Physically I was freezing cold. That’s all I could comprehend in the moment. Once I was warm and dry, I was so freaking happy, excited and proud. Insert smiling me again. I did the one thing that I set out to do for the year! This was finally the runners high that I heard about. Now I know!

I let myself take all of November to “recover”. I didn’t follow any work out. I ate when I was hungry and did not have a plan. Now it’s December and I am back to working out 2-3 times a week. Meal planning is not as organized as it once was but it fits for us as we wrap up the year.

I feel like I had a major success this year and I do wonder about next year. Will I top this year? Will I train for something else? The answer today is that I don’t know. I will decide on something eventually but I’m ok not know what it is just yet.

I want to encourage you to take a moment to look back on your health journey—your wins and your challenges. Hopefully, you have some laughs and eye rolls in there too.    

I wish you and your families a safe and Happy New Year!