Medal Monday: The Coldest Race of My Life

July 3, 2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

Hey guys!

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Medal Monday post, so I wanted to apologize for my inconsistent posting schedule lately. I’ve been pretty busy since graduating college last month. I moved back to Florida permanently, bought my first car (2013 VW Beetle light blue!), had a couple mental breakdowns during my never ending job search, and questioned things like my life choices and entire existence. Just normal post-grad things!

giphy — How I’m handling the realization that college prepared me for nothing.

One thing that centers me aside from running is writing. Hence why this blog is called The Running Writer. If you couldn’t tell yet, one of my hidden talents is pointing out things that are already painfully obvious!

So for my own sanity I wanted to get back in the swing of writing a new Medal Monday for you every week. These posts are reminders of why I started running and why I’ll continue running as long as my little legs allow me to. Which is hopefully for many many more years.

My last Monday Medal post was the Iron Girl Half Marathon in Clearwater, FL. Today we’re going to fast forward six months from that first finish line to the second one aka the coldest race I’ve ever ran in my entire life, but that’s just a minor detail.

All of my medals are special to me, but this one in particular marks the beginning of an era of crossing many finish lines with one of my closest friends.

A rare photo of Caitlyn and I together NOT in active wear!

Enter: Caitlyn! Please get familiar with her, because she’s going to be in quite a few future Medal Mondays.

Along with crossing those finish lines together came many pre-race rituals, which looks a bit like this:

Carb loading the night before.
An intense dance party, but not too intense, we have to run 13.1 miles in the morning for crying out loud!
Sleeping in our race outfits in Caitlyn’s twin sized bed.
Waking up at way-too-early o’clock after going through 12 of Caitlyn’s alarms.
Singing our lungs out on the way to the race (lately, to Hamilton).
Kicking butt out there on the course!

I can’t remember exactly how, but over that summer I managed to convince her to start training for Morristown’s Halloween Half Marathon with me.

Like any second time half marathoner, I actually had confidence in my ability to run 13.1 miles and not die or give up and become a laughing stock to all my family and friends. When I was training for my first half marathon I was almost positive I would complete my training and cross the finish line, but I wasn’t sure that I would ever do it again.

giphy2 — My face anytime someone asked me what my time goal was.

That being said, I of course didn’t set a time goal. I was still impressed that after growing up with almost a grudge towards anything athletic related, that I was going to train and complete a SECOND half marathon.

Training was a breeze, although I missed quite a few long runs. I was so confident in my ability to cross the finish line that I didn’t stick to my training. I seriously want to cringe thinking about how THAT was my attitude.

Don’t be cocky like 23-year-old Kerry. Just don’t.

Remember how I said earlier that this was the coldest race of my life? Let’s talk about that, yeah?

Race day was in the middle of October, which in New Jersey is full on fall time. The week leading up to our race was unusually warm for the time of year it was. Caitlyn and I had our fingers crossed that the weather would hold out for us.

Spoiler alert: It didn’t. Overnight, it turned to winter and the high for race day was 38 degrees. While we were running the temperature MIGHT have reached 35 degrees.

giphy3 — I am Hans and Elsa is God. My prayers were not answered for nice weather.

I know people run in much more frigid temperatures and for sure don’t complain about it nearly as much as I do but for those of you that don’t know me that well, I don’t do well in the cold which is one of the many reasons why I love Florida. From October to around April when I lived in New Jersey I avoided the outdoors and I moaned and groaned anytime I did have to go outside. I wasn’t the most pleasant company to say the least.

Caitlyn and I wore long sleeve shirts, giant sweatshirts, gloves AND those ear warmer headband things that I’ve never know the name for. We stood around for nearly 45 minutes before the race started and we wore everything long past the finish line.

The second we stopped running I had the longest coughing fit from the cold air in my lungs. I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold in my life, but I don’t remember not smiling at any point.

Looking back and sharing all the little details makes me look at how far I’ve come as a runner. I’m really grateful that it’s something I’ve stuck with and improved at because it really has changed my life.

I guess that’s what the medals are for right? Marking milestones in our never ending running stories.

Thanks for hanging around for another Medal Monday guys! I’ll see you on Twitter and Instagram (I just posted pictures from my day trip to Disney!).

Why My 6th Half Marathon Was the Best and Worst Run of My Life

June 6, 2017.Reading time 9 minutes.

Alright.

It’s been two weeks, I think it’s time to talk about it.

Back in April I wrote a blog post telling you guys I was training for my sixth half marathon and that Caitlyn (my running buddy) and I set our first time goal. Our fastest time for finishing a half marathon was two hours and 20 minutes, and this time around we wanted to finish in two hours and 15 minutes.

May 21st rolled around and we found ourselves at the starting line and eventually crossing the finish line BUT…it was the worst run I’ve ever been on, but the lesson I learned from it is why it was also the best race of my life.

superherohalf — Here’s a rare photo of me smiling out on the course, clearly it was before I thought I was going to die.

We didn’t finish in two hours and 15 minutes, but we did finish in two hours and 18 minutes which means we still broke a personal record, just not the one that we wanted. On the bright side, our splits were pretty impressive compared to our other races. Our first two miles were under 10 minutes and for the rest of the race we remained pretty consistent, staying between 10:06 and 10:30. So that’s not exactly why it was a flop.

Let me start off by saying, I didn’t train properly for this race and man my body was not very forgiving out there on the course! I’m typically really strict with myself when it comes to a training schedule but this time around I had more on my plate than I could balance. Between my wisdom teeth removal, finishing the last month of my college career, graduation and the attention required for car shopping and moving to another state…well let’s just say my runs were very far apart and not very long at all. In fact, the farthest I ran in my training was 7 miles, which isn’t very close to running 13.1 miles.

During the first two miles, all I could think about was how long this race was going to be. I knew I would finish, but I also knew I wasn’t going to finish feeling strong. I ended up being right, but that mindset didn’t provide any kind of help for me.

giphy

By mile five my ankles and feet were starting to hurt, which for me is a really bad sign considering that pain doesn’t kick in until usually mile 10. As soon as I noticed the pain I thought “Well aren’t we in quite the pickle?” And I’m allergic to pickles, so it didn’t end well.

Nonetheless I kept running as fast as my body would let me and while it was tough, I didn’t get a taste of just how impossible finishing seemed until mile 10.

It was a downhill slope and I crashed to the bottom.

unnamed — I think Caitlyn was happy enough for the both of us when I started crashing!

Usually Caitlyn hits a wall at mile 10 and I cheer her on for the remaining 3.1 miles to the finish line, but the roles reversed this time. She had the big smile on her face and I had the scowl.

My entire body hurt and with every step I took I felt the urge to vomit growing stronger. I was angry and incredibly disappointed with myself for not following through with my training plan. For the last three miles I was telling myself I could do this on one step, and that I couldn’t with the next.

I’d like to say crossing the finish line put a smile on my face, but it didn’t. It only made me more annoyed because I realized I didn’t break the PR I wanted and I knew it was my own fault.

What made this even more difficult to swallow was everyone waiting for us at the finish line. Usually the only person waiting for me is my dad, but, two of my friends and my boyfriend were there this time as well.

There’s something more unsettling about failing in front of other people as opposed to failing when no one’s watching. I’m embarrassed to say it, but this gave me even more of an attitude and made me feel annoyed that they were there.

I just want to make this point so we all understand how unreasonable I was being. These are people that have never made me feel that I needed to impress them. They have always accepted me at exactly where I was. Did any of them care that we finished in 2 hours and 18 minutes? Obviously not. They were just excited to be there supporting us and thought we were total badasses.

group — Look at my friends not caring that I didn’t run as fast as I said I was going to!running a half marathon, never-mind six of them!

I was a little snippy with everyone for a while. This is awful, but I didn’t even thank them for coming until 20 minutes after crossing the finish line. After we ate I perked up the tiniest bit and was tolerable to be around again.

Sorry for being a jerk, friends. I love you for showing up on race day and every other day.

I’m still so embarrassed about my time that I’ve put off writing this. But I learned a huge lesson from this last race.

Not every run is going to be a success. They won’t all leave me feeling new again and ready to take on the world. Expecting every run to be better than the last is just setting myself up for failure at some point. Instead, you should expect to always show up and work your absolute hardest and give it your all. Life happens and it can get in the way of training.

Running is hard sometimes, and so is life. What I experienced during this race was incredibly human. I did the best I could at that point and I still finished with a PR.

It’s necessary to be disappointed in ourselves sometimes. You learn an incredibly important lesson from it and it’ll make you work even harder the next time around. So don’t be afraid to fail, okay?

Get out there and give it your all. No matter if you fail or succeed, you’ll grow either way. That’s what life’s about. Don’t forget that.

Well that’s all I’ve got for you today! Stay connected with me on Twitter and Instagram so you can watch me win and fail, sometimes with grace and sometimes without it.

Talk to you guys soon!

Medal Monday: Iron Girl Half Marathon

May 1, 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

Woo-hoo, another Medal Monday! This one’s going to be a good one because we’re getting into the half marathon medals, which are usually bigger and cooler.

My first half marathon was the Iron Girl Half Marathon in Clearwater, Florida. there were palm trees everywhere and everything was pink. I was thriving.

The story behind this one is really personal and one that I’m really proud to tell. I went from having the best year of my life in 2014 because of my Disney College Program and getting one semester closer to graduating college to…kind of nothing.

The perks of being a Disney Cast Member! You get to hang out with your bosses girlfriend and accidentally match outfits.

My internship ended and I couldn’t afford to go back to school for another semester all while my friends were graduating college, getting their first “big kid” jobs and moving in with their significant others. I was, of course, filled with joy for them but I was also avoiding everyone out of embarrassment.

Transitioning from everyone watching me live the “coolest” life on Instagram while working in Magic Kingdom to trading in that Disney name tag for a full-time spot as a hostess at a sports grill…well, it was less than magical.

I was bored and mortified that everything in my life was at a standstill. I was in search of some kind of accomplishment to work towards to make up for the nothingness that my life seemed to have reverted to. And that is how I decided I was going to train for a half marathon.

I spent hours on google trying to learn everything I needed to know to make this happen, looked at 100 different training plans before picking the perfect one, registered for the Iron Girl Half Marathon and the rest is history!

I told you…everything was covered in palm trees and pink!

I dedicated myself and my time to running 5 days a week for 12 weeks straight and I felt myself growing stronger physically and mentally week by week. While I was still embarrassed that I wasn’t in school, my mind-set was beginning to change and my confidence decided to make an appearance in my life again.

Training for a half marathon for the first time is no joke. It takes a serious amount of determination and pushing your limits even when you’re uncomfortable and feel like giving up. Despite that, my training was one of the only things that kept me going in that season of my life. I loved talking about it and it gave me the confidence to face people again.

Okay, back to everything being pink! Everyone at the starting line was so excited and pumped to be there, and to my surprise so many of them were running their first half marathon too. The weather was perfect, the course was beautiful and the energy was insane. So much so that I didn’t start to feel tired until mile 12. That was by FAR the toughest mile I’ve ever run in my life but it was the most rewarding. It led me to that finish line and got me the prettiest medal I’ve ever seen (besides the Disney Princess Half Marathon medals, sorry Iron Girl).

I couldn’t bend or lift my legs for at least two days but it was all worth it. This medal reminds me that sometimes our plans aren’t the best plans for us and they don’t happen the way we want them to because something greater needs to enter our lives.

They really should have been giving out sweat towels with those medals, just saying.

It also reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Lysa Terkeurst and biggest lesson I took away from this entire experience. “External achievement never equals internal acceptance.”

Training for a half marathon will make you confident and change your life, BUT it won’t magically fix what you’re running from.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram to follow my crazy running shenanigans!

The Superhero Half Marathon

April 19, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

If you told me when I was in high school, or even four years ago for that matter, that I would become obsessed with running and that I’d run a half marathon I would literally laugh in your face and call you crazy and proceed to skip gym class. I am so uncoordinated and off-balanced I almost have no business running, but I do it anyway.

Here I am though with not one but five half marathons under my belt, all of which I’ve ran in a year and a half time span which is super crazy and I’m really proud of.

What’s even more exciting than that is I’m doing it all over again for a sixth time! Caitlyn and I are running Morristown’s Superhero Half Marathon on May 21st. Seriously, we love you Morristown and you’re our favorite place to run. This is an exciting one because it’s my last race in New Jersey before I finally move to Florida (another blog post for another time!).

This is my last race with Caitlyn for a while. Probably until we run our first full marathon during Disney’s marathon weekend in 2019, so we’re going all out for this one. We’ll be sporting super cute and sassy Popflex outfits and for the first time ever we’re setting a time goal! We finished out last half marathon in two hours and 20 minutes. This time around we want to get to the finish line in two hours and 15 minutes. All we have to do is hold about 10:15 pace per mile which sounds like no big deal right?

Wrong! Here’s why:

Race day is less than five weeks away and I’ve hardly trained aside from my usual three to four mile runs three to four times a week. Bad Kerry.

There have been some setbacks in the training period this time around.

I’m in my last semester of college (!) and that alone has been the biggest time sucker for various reasons that make my head spin.
I had my wisdom teeth removed! It was tragic and awful and kept me from running for two and a half weeks. I have no pain tolerance and have never had any kind of procedure/surgery before so I pulled out all the theatrics for the occasion

I’m sharing this with you for accountability purposes of course. I can’t skimp out on trying when I’m telling you all my goal.

fdlkkfdlv — The face of a runner that held race-day pace for 5 miles!

Since race day is rapidly approaching I added an awesome countdown on my side bar so we can count down together! Feel free to message me something like “Hey, enough of the Cadbury chocolate! You have 10 days until race day!” or “Run like your student loans are chasing you!” or “If you hit your time goal I’ll buy you Hamilton tickets!” at your leisure.

I especially like that last one. While I’m out there running like my life depends on it, someone please make that happen.