Yesterday, I completed the Haunted Hustle Half Marathon in Middleton, WI, which basically closes out the year for midwest running events (for me, anyways). I still have another race before the end of the year, but that's in Seattle over Thanksgiving.
It's starting to get colder during the day and darker in the evenings, which makes it really difficult to run. Something that I've learned this year is that I thrive on the positive energy of the sun to run fast and run well. It excites all the molecules in my skin, gives me a warm refreshing glow, and I just glide along whatever track I'm on. The cold weather makes running feel like work.
The Haunted Hustle Half Marathon was more difficult for me than previous races because of the frigid weather. My legs felt stiff throughout the whole race. My shoulder started cramping up a couple times. The entire race just felt like an uphill battle. Like I was dragging some extra weight behind me.
I'm actually really surprised by my final result. I clocked in at 2:14:12. The whole race I felt so far behind, but I really only finished 30 seconds after my best time ever. Not too bad after all.
I've been keeping track of my running times and paces using Google Docs. Here's a link to the spreadsheet: Google Doc!
This year I've done 6 Half Marathons, though I don't really count the Florida one because I was way out of shape. With the exception of the Haunted Hustle, each time had progressively crushed my previous best. From the times I had when I first started running last year up until now, I've shaved off 30 minutes.
I think that's an incredible amount of improvement. So much so, that I really wonder what the hell I was doing last year. At the time, I was really only concerned with completing the race, but it feels so lazy thinking back. I really could have done better.
Oh well, I didn't really care about times last year. I care about them now. I feel like I can do better than 2:13, and I'll continue to run and push myself until I find the best time I can possibly do. And when that happens, I might finally graduate to a full marathon.
My next race is the Seattle Half Marathon, which takes place over Thanksgiving weekend. Seeing how my last two times were pretty consistent, I intend to keep that consistency or do better. Though, If I do worse and it's cold out, I'll probably just blame it on that.
Next year, I'm definitely continuing my running habits. I'll run in many of the same Half Marathon events and a couple other ones. I might even sign up for Milwaukee's Lakefront Marathon as my first Full Marathon.
One more and I'll be at 10!
