On Half Marathoning (to run or not to run)

<-----This quote is the opposite of how I feel about running.  Nevertheless, every few years, I get the notion that it would be a good idea to sign up for a half marathon.  And after the fact - after the race is over and enough days have passed that i can start walking without a limp - I'm always really glad I did it.

This weekend, I ran the Shamrock Half Marathon in Virginia Beach.  The Shamrock is a fun, well-run race.  It might be unique in setting:  2/3rds near the ocean, 1/3rd through a military base.  It was fun to see everyone dressed up in green to go with the St. Patrick's Day theme.  If you're into drinking beer during the race, there's an opportunity at almost every mile (i can barely stomach water when i'm running, so no beer on the course for me), as well as a big party tent on the beach at the end serving Irish stew and Yuengling.  The race course is relatively flat and fast, and the parts near the beach are scenic (not so much through the military base).  The weather is a big wild card in March, but we got a perfect day:  50 degrees and dry throughout the race.  I enjoyed this race and would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun and fast half.

After-race selfie

Here are some of the pros and cons of running a half-marathon:

The impressive finisher's medal

Pros:
- Race day is super fun.  You're there with thousands of people who are pumped about running.  You get to run along one of the most scenic routes in the city while police officers make traffic stop for you.  You get swag (at the Shamrock, we got: t-shirt, running hat, giant finisher's medal, beach towel, beer, and Irish stew).  It's a fun event and if you get through all your training runs and make it to the actual race, you will have a good time.
- It's a good motivator to get in shape.
- It's inspirational to see the various good things people are doing as part of their race -- raising money for cancer research, pushing non-ambulatory family members in jogging chairs, running alongside blind runners as guides (i thought of you, Emily Cropper!).  Not to mention the hundreds of volunteers who wake up at the crack of dawn to help out with the race and cheer on runners.  So much human kindness going on.
- Running a race that's a double digit number of miles feels (to me) like a real accomplishment.
-There are moments in training where you will want to quit.  If you can push past those moments and keep going, it builds your mental toughness.

Cons:
-  While the race itself is very fun, the vast majority of your time will be spent on solitary training runs in preparation for the main event.  (Unless you find a running buddy or you are a 25 year old wunderkind who can do one 6 mile run the weekend before and that's your entire training plan.)  So if you don't like time spent alone, or you find running to be boring / tedious / painful, or you are already short on time and energy...this might not be the best time to sign up for a long race.  Half marathons are very doable if exercise is already a regular part of your life (meaning 3-4 times per week for at least an hour per workout session), but they are still a commitment, and if you don't like running at least a little bit, then this probably isn't the event for you.
- Once you pick a training schedule, it's easy to get obsessive about following it, and then frustrating when inevitable problems come up (illness, minor injury, busyness) and you have to shrink the quantity or quality of your miles for awhile.

This was my first half marathon since becoming a parent, so here are some ways that half marathon training felt different after having kids:

My training frenemy, the treadmill

- This might be a big "duh", but my overall energy level was a lot lower when I trained as a parent as opposed to training before I was a parent.  The weekend long runs actually felt easier, maybe because they were a nice break from the same-every-day home routine.  But the weekday runs, and finding the energy to make it through regular life, got pretty hard as my mileage went over 20 miles per week.  There was one stretch that was particularly difficult - we had 2 weeks of snow days and Kenny was away at a conference for part of that time.  It was *really* hard, after finally getting the kids to bed for the night, to choose to get on the treadmill for an hour rather than just collapsing on the couch with a glass of wine to watch TV.  (Lest anyone feel bad for me due to my (self imposed) (first world) problem of a running schedule, I cut my mileage in half during that week and I definitely still finished the day with wine and Facebook.)
- It was nice to feel like I had an identity other than "mom" during the time I spent running.  Also, it was nice to have a project with a beginning, middle, and end.  (Which is not something that happens a lot when your job is parenting young kids.)
-When running outdoors, I triple checked before crossing intersections (and also tried to make eye contact and exchange waves with turning drivers), as I care a lot more about making it home in one piece and less about looking cool.

These were the tunes on my Ipod Shuffle that got me through the runs:
Black Keys (El Camino), Decemberists (The King is Dead), Jennifer Knapp (The Collection), Guster (Lost and Gone Forever), Beck (Guero), Kanye (Late Registration), LeCrae (Gravity & Anomaly), Trip Lee (Good Life), various 90s / early 2000s hip-hop and R&B.
[I was really hoping that there would be a sequence where the Shuffle played Beck followed by Destiny's Child followed by Kanye, because the Grammies, but sadly that never happened.]

One other random fact about half marathons:  when I was at the end stages of labor and delivery with Joshua, my sister-in-law was running a very hilly half marathon in San Francisco.  Going through some difficult moments of labor, one of my motivating thoughts was, "at least i'm not running 13.1 miles up and down the hills of San Francisco".  Thank you for that, Naomi :).