Half-Marathon

Half marathon results

On Saturday morning my parents, sister, and I all headed to a local park about 20 minutes from Pittsburgh.

Hannah ran a 5k, my parents walked a 5k, and I ran a half marathon. I ran the same race last year and it was bitter cold. I don’t know why I signed up again for this year, but I did! It was about 40 degrees at the start, so it wasn’t too cold ;].

Hannah and I before the start. Freezing!

About 2,300 other runners were lined up at the start as well. It was a packed race for about two miles but it was fun because people were hollering and joking around the whole time.

I was pretty nervous for the race (because I haven’t been training “hard” the past few weeks) but it went by so fast. I was just super happy to get coffee after the race.

Hannah’s 5k time & place: 28:07 (9:04 pace) – 2nd place in under 15 age group

My half marathon time & place: 1:41:32 (7:44 pace) – 1st place in 15-19 age group

My thoughts:

  • I’m happy with my time. My watch said I ran 13.5 miles (bobbing through the huge crowd) in 1:41, which would put me at a 7:31 pace.
  • I improved my time from last year.. went from a 1:46 to a 1:41. Sweet 🙂
  • I loved running with my little sister for the beginning of the race!
  • The post-race goodies were kinda awesome….

Jimmy came to the race and took me out to eat after (at Eat n’ Park) then we just hung out for the rest of the day because I was sleepy! He helped to pick music for the next spinning class I’m teaching. What a sweetie.

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Today I’m headed to church, hanging out, and catching up on homework.

Hope your weekend is going swell!


(Not) Running Plans

In late January I began training for a June 2012 marathon and now I’ve pretty much decided not to run it. I went through each run well and was injury free. I’m still injury free. So what is the issue?

I even managed a few good trail runs.

Well, one day a few weeks ago I randomly looked on my family’s calendar for the date of my marathon and saw that it’s my little sister’s dance recital. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. At that point I decided to just run a marathon close to the date I had planned.

Then I couldn’t find one that “fit my bill.” I wanted a Saturday marathon and I was only willing to travel to PA, OH, NY, or WV. I searched for two weeks and I still couldn’t find one.

As I was praying about the situation I felt as if God was telling me “Allie, your plans aren’t working for a reason.” I thought about it and prayed some more and realized that I was becoming too bonded to training for this marathon. 

I started out training very excited and was reasonably “into it” but soon enough I was spending a lot of time in my training journal and on weather websites trying to plan out my runs for the week. I was thinking about the training more than I was thinking about the most important thing in my life–my faith and relationship with God.

Once I came to that realization I knew it was time to let go of the training plan and the whole idea of the marathon-for now. I’m sure I may one day run a marathon, but since praying about it, I feel like God is telling me that now isn’t my time.

So what are my running plans?

The short answer: I have a half marathon on the 31st of March and I am doing two 5k’s in April.

The long answer: I’m just going to run when I can & when I feel like it and not worry about training plans (to an extent-I don’t want to injure myself) and all of the stresses that come with it. Who knows what I will be racing in this summer or if I will run at all.

 I just know what needs to always, always come first in my life and thoughts- God.

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This was a really hard post to write because I feel humbled. All through January, February, and a bit of March I posted about the marathon that I wanted/planned to run and talked about it but I feel as if I am doing the right thing according to my prayers and God’s guidance.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.
Proverbs 16:9

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Have you ever had an abrupt change of plans?