I have been chasing a sub 2 hour half marathon Personal Record (PR), for about a year now…
Even though I had a solid streak of terrible races in 2016, I KNEW I had it in me to run this sub 2. After each race, my coach and I would sit down, look at the temp, look at my splits, and realize that as the temp rose, my speed went down. Super common problem, it just sucked that this was happening EVERY RACE.
So when a race in Phoenix in January popped up, we decided this would be worth a go. The temperature shouldn’t climb too high and it would be fairly flat. On top of it, a running group I’m a part of (Oiselle Volee) would be there en masse to race. It was time to put up or shut up. I knew the sub 2 was in me, and this was the race to PROVE IT. Some of my friends knew I was heading out to give the sub 2 goal another shot, and all were encouraging – they believed in me probably before I believed in me!
Being out on the start line with lots of women wearing the same uniform was a pretty powerful moment – I felt like I was part of something bigger…that while I was racing for myself, that I was never actually alone. It allowed me to take s step back and reflect on why I love running – we can all come from vastly different backgrounds, and have drastically different race goals, but we all can come out as one – to support one another regardless of what those goals are, and share in each others’ successes.
Early into the race, I found someone in a matching singlet who was kind of pacing similar to me and asked if she had any goals for the day. She didn’t, but I had shared that I was kinda hoping for a sub 2…I had been training for so long, and I thought this would be a good chance to get it. What happened for the next 10 miles was pretty much magic. She decided she was going to pace me to my sub 2…just on a whim, I verbalized I wanted a sub 2 goal, and she decided that she WANTED to help make that dream come true. I had no idea what her name was at the time, where she was from, or anything, but that’s the power of running. You don’t have to know each other to want each other to succeed.
Melissa paced me from mile 3 to the finish line. She kept reinforcing that we were on track for a sub 2 and that we had room to spare…she kept telling me I was capable of this, and I was going to do this. This is a woman I knew NOTHING ABOUT (I eventually found out she was from Texas), and she knew NOTHING about me (I think I told her I lived in Santa Barbara). She essentially put herself aside that morning, picked me up, and carried me home. We came in at 1:56:19. I SCREAMED when we crossed the finish line and gave her a huge, sweaty, sobbing hug. Not only did we do a sub 2, we CRUSHED a sub 2 and I had almost a 7 minute PR (2:03:08 set in 2012).
Melissa is why I believe in teams, even as an adult. Teams want all of their members to succeed, the team’s success is their success, the team’s joys are their joys, etc. It was amazing how many people were SO HAPPY for my sub 2 – regardless of their pace or ability, the fact that I shattered my own goal was worth celebrating with high fives, cheers, hugs… and a congratulatory tequila shot from another good running Gal Pal over lunch that day. That camaraderie is what I try to bring to my programs every day. YOUR success is awesome. PERIOD.
So to close this out…the sub 2 was absolutely Freaking Fantastic, and I am still on Cloud 9, but what gets me choked up is how the TEAM of my life – from my best friends, my recently met teammates, etc. – all helped get me to the sub 2, celebrated it fiercely, and carried me to the finish. You may train alone, you may sometimes race alone, but when you’re on a team, you’re never actually alone. THAT is the essence of running that I try to bring to my programs. We are all different, but we celebrate each others’ successes as if they were our own.
Be Patient. Be Persistent. Be on a Team.
