Looking Back at the Half Marathon Streak
Looking Back at the Half Marathon Streak
How It Started
In February 2012, a half marathon was being held in Palm Springs, and one of my walking friends asked if I wanted to do it... about 5 days before it was set to happen. I said I wasn't interested, and she said "Where is your sense of adventure?" ... though it was in slightly more colorful language. Six days later, I was participating in my first half marathon.
Now, I hadn't really run too much up to that point. A 5K here and there, and for the most part, I wasn't running much during those "runs".
At the start of the half marathon, I looked at my friend that had persuaded me to participate and said something like, "We're just going to walk, right?" She said we had to run at least some of it.
Eight miles later, I was still running and enjoying it. She wanted to walk a bit. So we did, and then she encouraged me to start running again, so I did.
The First Taste of Success
I finished that first half marathon in something like 2h30m, but I was suddenly hooked. I thought, "I bet if I actually trained for a half marathon, I could do better." So I set out to train for a half marathon. I started a training schedule using this plan and was able to complete the San Diego Rock 'n Roll half in a little more than 2 hours. I continued to run medium distances (up to 12 miles on weekends) and really enjoyed it.
I got to a point where I was in the best shape of my life. I had a resting heart rate of something like 50 with blood pressure that was pretty low (almost low enough that my doctor was concerned!) but my labs were good, and I felt GREAT!
The Birth of the Streak
I was looking at half marathons in 2014 and saw the Palm Springs one again, but also saw one in a local city called Desert Hot Springs in December 2013. Then there was the Carlsbad half in January 2014. Another one looked interesting in Zion National Park (sort of) in March of 2014. And then I saw that there was the La Jolla half in April.
It also turns out that if you run the Carlsbad, La Jolla, and America's Finest City (AFC) half marathons, you get a nice triple crown medal. Well, the AFC was in August. I was looking at the calendar and thought, "Holy shit, I might be able to schedule half marathons each month for an entire year!"
The Journey Begins
In November of 2013, I signed up for a couple of the half marathons that were further out (essentially the ones for the Triple Crown medal) and the Palm Springs half.
I wanted to do the Zion run, but it's a 10-12 hour drive to Zion from where I live. I casually mentioned this to an acquaintance who said, "I'd run that with you."
The next thing I knew, I had a pretty good string of runs set up: (1) Carlsbad, (2) Palm Springs, (3) Zion, (4) La Jolla, (5) America's Finest City ... but I still hadn't told anyone, other than my wife, about my crazy idea to run a half marathon each month.
Making the Commitment
One day while on a walk with a friend, I mentioned that I was thinking about doing it and he said, "That's an awesome idea... you should totally do it." We spent most of the walk with me talking about the idea and wavering until I finally just said, "I'm going to do it."
And that was it. I had made a commitment, publicly, about this thing I was going to do.
The Year of Running
All that was left was to finalize each of the runs, and then train. And by train, I mean run. A lot. So much running.
I ended up running 13 half marathons in 364 days, bookending the feat with the Half Marathon in Desert Hot Springs in December of 2013 and 2014.
In all, I ran in the following cities (some still have my results online!):
- Desert Hot Springs (twice!) in December (2013, 2014)
- Carlsbad in January
- Palm Springs in February
- Zion in March
- La Jolla in April
- Menifee in May
- Rock n Roll in San Diego in June
- Oceanside in July
- San Diego (AFC) in August
- Ventura in September
- San Luis Obispo (SLO) in October
- Santa Barbara in November
During that year I ran roughly 1000 miles training, and 170.3 miles for the actual runs.
The Reality of the Challenge
I have never been so tired in all of my life as I was that year, but I look back on it and it was really fun.
At the beginning of the year, I had an idea that I would get better and faster at running. That didn't happen1 for a variety of reasons, but mostly because it wasn't fun. What was fun was going to different places with my family where the races were being held and hanging out with them. I still have fond memories of being in Ventura and going to a thrift store with my wife and daughter and finding a pair of roller skates that fit my daughter perfectly.
The Memorable Moments
I remember the kitschy B&B in Santa Barbara where my wife and I stayed and walking around Santa Barbara and finding this cool co-op style building with lots of vendors for getting food, drinks, or artisanal handcrafted stuff.
I also remember running the La Jolla half with a low-grade fever and realizing exactly how bad of an idea that was. Also, that hill at mile five on that course was absolutely brutal!
The Why of It All
In looking back on this, I don't really know why I did it other than the hubris of thinking I could, and then telling someone I was going to.
The hardest stretch was the runs in the second quarter. The first one (La Jolla) was the last weekend in April, the Menifee one was in the middle of May, and the Rock n Roll in San Diego was the first week of June. I ran three half marathons in five weeks. I still look back on that and think it was the point that broke me.
The Challenges
I really did want to give up more times than I can remember, but because I had said I was going to do a thing, I was going to do it no matter what.
There was the nerve-wracking part where I was also going to do a run-a-mile every day between Thanksgiving and New Year's, and then on the first run, I twisted my ankle so my adventure almost didn't even start at all!
The Lessons Learned
I look back on this experience and remember that yes, I can do hard things. Yes, they are worth it, but not always for the reasons that you think they will be.
Telling someone you're going to do something hard can help push you forward and keep you accountable, even just to yourself.
Looking Forward
Would I ever do something like this again? Maybe if I was 10 years younger! In all seriousness, I think I would IF I went into it with a bit of a different headspace. When I started this challenge in 2013, it was with the piss and vinegar of a young person who was sure they could conquer the world.
If I did it this time, I would be more mindful. I would try to enjoy the practice of running. I would enjoy the destinations I was going to get to run in. I would share these joys more with my family.
The Support System
Doing things like this are never done alone. I think that was the thing I learned most about this. During that year, there were some sacrifices made that I didn't realize at all. My wife and daughter did a really good job of supporting me and my decision, but it did put some strain on family life.
Work-Life Balance
Something else it taught me, ironically, was a bit of work-life balance. I was the manager for a technical team at the time. We had an upgrade that was set to happen the weekend before my Menifee run in May. Due to an issue with a third-party vendor for that application, we had to push back the upgrade... I had to decide to push back the upgrade which meant it would happen the weekend of my run.
As I was working towards making the decision, my boss and my team all knew what I was trying to do, and they supported not only the decision to push back the upgrade but also encouraged me to go do the run. They told me that they could handle the upgrade without me, and they did.
The Hard Lessons
That Menifee run was also where I discovered, for the first time, exactly how bad dehydration can make you feel. Not an experience I recommend, and not one I ever hope to repeat. There are still parts of Old Town Temecula that make me feel a bit queasy when I visit them!
The Final Reflection
Overall, this was a great experience, and I learned a lot about myself. But I also learned a lot about my friends, family, and coworkers as well.
Would I do it again ... maybe. Would I like to run at least one of those half marathons again? Absolutely. I just need to get back into running shape!
- just take a look at my available results above via the links! ↩︎