Ready to Run Again

If you were following this blog, you might be wondering what happened. Did I stop running? Did I quit altogether? Did I run off and join a circus with poor internet access, thus making blogging difficult? No, but for those of you who do know my personal life, you'll know that I have experienced some pretty drastic changes. I'm back and writing because, at last, I feel like I am in a place where I can get back to normal, and part of getting back to normal for me is, evidently, running.

It was around May 2013 that my life as I knew it underwent several major and unexpected upheavals and it's only now that I can report I've reached a point where my life feels more stable. That isn't to say that I didn't run during that time. In fact, as this handy photo demonstrates, I ran quite a bit:

These are racing bibs. You get one for each race that you do. I did a whole lot of racing from May 2013-May 2014

A well-intentioned friend said to me in December 2013 that she was concerned about how much running I was doing. 'I think you're trying to *run away* from your problems,' was her exact phrase. She was right: I was trying to avoid them and running seemed like a perfectly good outlet (and, to be honest, I could have chosen many more destructive outlets). But I wasn't having fun. No race felt really rewarding. I was signing up for events that I ultimately did not enjoy--running on the opening of a new Tampa highway, anyone? While I did a number of trail runs and was lucky to be around a great group of runners who did the same, even that wasn't enough to escape my problems. Training became almost impossible. When I did get out to train, I almost always counted down in my head every step until I was done. There was no real joy, no real improvement, and no solution to my problems.

The same could be said in my personal life, as the events of May 2013 were not easily reconciled, and by May 2014, my situation became even less stable. But still, I kept signing up for races. I did a few blasts from the past: the Jim Kane Sugar Bowl, Beach to Beacon and even revisited my first 10k course with the Tufts 10k. I faced an old nemesis with the Somerville Gobble Gobble Gobble, a race that had not gone so well the last time I did it back in 2006 (I did better).  I was working out--with heartfelt thanks to OutFit Bootcamp, which kept me on track at least a bit--but I wasn't running.

As the locations of these races might suggest, by this point I had left Florida and set up shop in Boston, although my situation was still not stable--so much so that I don't even live in Boston now because in March 2015, I started my first 'real' job in almost a year in Portland, Maine. Working in Maine meant moving to Maine, a burden that I gladly took on because Maine is a great place to live, but one that made keeping up a training plan difficult. And so, running was again on the back burner. Training did not go as planned. However, there was one important change: I ran a race.

On June 7, I completed the Covered Bridges Half-Marathon in Woodstock, Vermont.

It pretty much all looked like this, except for the parts that were even prettier by the river

The course was beautiful, my performance less so. But I still finished, and I even finished in not my worst half-marathon time ever. What I realized from my experience is that I still know how to run a half-marathon, I just need some practice (which should be read as 'miles') to run it better. And I'll need those miles, because I have a crazy plan: next October, I am planning to run two marathons and qualify to be a Marathon Maniac. The marathons in question are the Maine Marathon, conveniently located down the street from me, and Mount Desert Island. Both are in Maine, both should be beautiful, and both should be a lot of fun. I won't go into too many details now, because I'm sure I'll have lots to say between now and then, but I am excited to take on this challenge.

There were plenty of times over the past two years when I questioned my dedication to running and whether I should stop kidding myself about how out of shape I had let myself become. But again and again, I found myself signing up for--and getting excited about--races. While I don't see myself going on the same bib-acquiring bonanza spree as before, I'm looking forward to getting back to a place where running is fun again. Portland helps this, as it is a great city for running, and I'm sure that photos will soon follow. Okay, here's a preview:

I go to places like here when I run now

And also places like here. In fact, this is part of my daily commute.

Back to work! Tonight was the first night of the marathon running plan with a one-hour slow run. And the first day of training is complete.