Taking a minute to smell the roses....

Why helllllllo bloggers,  I've been MIA for a while, busy life lately.  I've had a hard time getting myself to sit down and actually blog lately with how busy I've been at work and at play.

So half-marathon training came to a head the other day, finished my first half-marathon and I have a few takeaways to share with the group:

1. Know thy course-take a look at the route you are running before you actually run it, it will help with training, if I would've known my marathon would go through every hill they could find in Baltimore I would've been running hills more then I was and not dying

2. Make sure you do not wear something new-I rocked a new UA shirt I bought the night before and I was basically uncomfortable the whole run, I should have stuck with my routine outfit for running so there wouldn't be anything distracting

3. Run in similar conditions as the actual marathon is going to be-my run was at 10ish AM, 10AM in October is COLDDDD people, I am not a morning runner but I would've been less shocked by the cold had I run more often in the morning

4. Build a playlist that will keep you going-I was running for months in advance and I knew which songs in my Ipod would push me and which songs I'd be scrambling for the skip button, believe me after 8 miles music and the people around you are the only things keeping you going, which brings me to......

5. Run with a POSITIVE buddy-when you are pushing your body to a point and you are doing something pretty extreme you need to be doing it with someone who you enjoy and pushes you right back, I ran with someone I am not a huge fan of and she basically bitched the entire time and did nothing to make the experience more pleasant, it's hard to push yourself when you have someone holding you back

Now the half-marathon is like child labor I imagine, you forget how terrible it is afterward that you think you want to do it again, and I probably will, it was a cool experience even though my feet are so banged up I can barely walk.  Checking something like that off my bucket list was a great feeling and I have the medal to show it.

And yes I took off of work today because my hair was a mess and it was too late to do anything with it, sometimes we all need a day off.....

Xoxo,
Me