Getting Crazy Motivated for a Half Marathon #sm21k

July 30, 2011

I recently got crazy motivated to run the half Seattle Marathon. Three weeks ago when I went to a “See you soon” party for Maya Bisineer, founder of MeMeTales, I was talking to a few friends at the event and that’s when a group of us (Maya, Shauna Causey, and I) decided to run it. It’s a bucket list item for us which makes it pretty special to knock this one off the list.

Freak out

After talking with friends in different circles, the group has increased in size to seven people. What made it all REAL and not just talk was when friends started to email me saying they registered for it. I remember responding to one friend “yeah, I tried to register last night but they don’t take AMEX”… his response was “yeah, but I know you have a VISA”. Ha! So I registered with my VISA and after that it really sunk in… I’m pretty much committed now and there’s probably very little I can do to get out of this one.
A friend, Betsy Aoki, introduced me to Andy Dunn (aka @The-Zman) on Twitter who provided these three running tips:

  1. Running tips 1… new shoes every 4 months even if they still look new…. Target does not sell proper running shoes 😉
  2. Running tips 2. learn your chafe spots and buy plenty of body glide, nipguards.com save you from red shirt syndrome.
  3. Running tips 3… sign up for the race and tell everyone so that you cannot back out… train with friends to motivate

First-time Newbies

The distance (13.1 miles) of a half marathon is certainly not going to be easy. It’s also not so long that it’s completely out of reach. It’s a good stretch goal. So most of us are first time half marathon runners so if you’ve ever thought about running a half marathon but couldn’t find a fun and crazy group of people to run with, you now have no more excuse! If you’re interested in joining us, register for the Seattle Marathon and then every time you do a training run tweet out or update your status with the hash tag #sm21k. I think it starts to get pretty motivating when you look at your FB or Twitter stream and see comments with the #sm21k!

Come join us

We’re not looking to break any land speed records, we’re just looking to have a lot of fun and figure out a way to cross that finish line! Leave a comment and let us know you’re in! Also if you have any tips or words of encouragement for us newbies we’d love to hear them!

WRITTEN BY

thinkspace

thinkspace