Thursday, February 23, 2012

What Happens After The Race???

This is what happens...LIFE!

For me at least.

I was so wrapped up in training for eight months, spending so much time and energy pouring into getting myself ready for 13.1!   As soon as the race was over and I had spent two whole days laying around and basking in my victory of accomplishment  and then I went back into my normal life and the focus of my life...motherhood and ministry.

The timing of the Half was perfect, in January!  It was right out of the gate of the new year and that meant everything that was starting up after the first of the year with my son's school & sports and everything  ramping up for our ministry did the same. Taking two hours every morning to run, always thinking about training and the race was not practical for me. I began to pour my creative time and energy into all of my new year's activities and tasks which meant all FOCUS turned from training to creating, launching and carrying out ministry.

My blog had to wait and once I did start writing it I was so far into my other focus that I was uninspired. Thus no part 3.  Talk about an eternal cliff hanger!

So this is what happened after the race - for ME!  Almost like a full balloon just released to fizzle into oblivion! The blowing up part was the best part of it for me!  I think this also tells alot about my philosophy of life.  I almost like the build up better than the event!

At least that is what happened to my TRAINING but not to my RUNNING!  Thank God.  Running is just a part of my life...I'm running my normal runs.



Now the saying is this:   The FINISH LINE IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF A NEW RACE.   And I believe that whole-heartedly.  Every race shows you where you need to focus, what you need to improve and gives you a new perspective on strategy for running. You just pick up working on your runs where you left off in some ways.  The desire to continue to challenge yourself and increase and grow is a basic element of running.

  I feel a push in myself to work on shorter distance with a faster pace.   I completely abandoned my Run/Walk system and decided to start with a basic 4 miles straight with no walk and it's been a challenge but it's going great.   So this is what I work on every time I run now. I'm not timing, just pushing a consistent fast pace and timing will come later because I officially do not want to get in a training mentality yet.

I know that I will indeed do another Half, probably in a smaller venue.  But this won't be in the next few months,  I will probably shoot for the fall.   I may do a few 5k's and 10k's before that.



In the mean time...it's almost Spring and my hubby and I have already hit the beach two times.  You know what that means....abs and arms and butt baby!   These are my focus areas....running can only do so much to get you ready for the beach!  Hey, I'm a Florida girl in her mid-forties.  Give me a break!