Two weeks ago (maybe even to this time), I was crossing the finish line at what was my fastest half marathon. It was a lovely, freezing, 13.1 mile race through all of Central Park’s worst hills (sometimes twice or three times). I surpassed my own expectations with the pace and time that I got. It was a 1:57:02 finish at an average of 8:56 pace. I think when crossing I was more numb from this surprise than the cold.

I ran my first race (a 5k) in February of 2016 and before that, I could barely run half a mile. What I’ve realized is that some people are just naturally good at running – they can skip running for several weeks and be perfectly fine to do a 10k. Me on the other hand… it’s like my body forgets the motion of running if I haven’t run for 3 days.

I don’t know who I’ve become signing up for all of these races because I certainly was not an athlete growing up. It was a struggle to finish any PE exercise and I dreaded the thought of running more than one mile. Here I am now running half marathons (only 3 so far). Of course in typical Anita fashion I am not content with 13.1 miles and have resolved to run a full marathon next year. The NYC Marathon next November.

I’ve said that out loud a few times now but I feel that I’m still so new to this – I still haven’t gone to a running store to get shoes that fit to my running style. I can barely dress for cold weather running. As for training in less than ideal weather (too hot or too cold), forget about it. I’ll begin official training in Spring (I think) and my goal at that point is to be comfortable running 13.1 miles so that running 15, 18 and 20 miles won’t seem so scary/painful/time-consuming.

Actually, running for 5 or 6 hours seems more intimidating than the mileage itself. I have a few months to get used to this idea but in the mean time my goal for the next few weeks is to hit up that running store and get me some shoes!