The year of the half marathon

When my kids were ski racers, we drove to training most days. On weeknights, we divided and conquered, and when it was my night to drive, it meant I had 3 hours to leisure ski, do some work, socialize, shop, or run. Not a huge fan of night skiing, I often elected to run. Not surprisingly, during those winters I easily racked up 40 running miles each week.

Now that they are grown, I have to create strategies to fight the urge to hibernate in the winter. Even with my strategies, my mileage is down, but I comfort myself by imagining where I’d be without them!

For the year of the half marathon I employed several strategies. If you are looking for some ideas that may work for you, read on.

One great thing about having a college student in the family is that his break doesn’t line up with anyone else’s break! As a family of runners looking to do something fun around Xander’s schedule, we naturally look to a race. The Syracuse Half Marathon has fallen on the last Sunday of spring break for the last few years. Once I sign up, I make myself run!

Read about my Syracuse Half Marathon.

I set a reasonable goal of 20 - 25 miles a week all winter, and forced myself to run outside for at least one run. We are fortunate to be part of our local running club, Finger Lakes Runners Club and it hosts a Winter Chill 5K series. The series is a pretty low key 5K experience with a focus on fun and camaraderie. This year a group of us decided it might be more fun to just run together for fun instead of trying to race each 5K. Sure, we were a few minutes slower, but we had a really awesome time. A benefit for me was found with a simple mind shift; instead of being nervous about running as fast as I could for the race, I could look forward to catching up with the folks I ran with.

Another way I connected with friends was to sign up for our local early season half marathon; the Skunk Cabbage Classic. Even with the weather still wintery, all the local runners come out. It is inspiring after all those winter miles to remember that there are so many runners out there. Before and after races are great times to connect with others - you can definitely run your own race which I certainly did.

Read about my Skunk Cabbage Classic.

Scott and I rarely go out for traditional dates. In fact, we have a recurring “Finance Date Night” in our calendar which we planned to be a nice excuse for a dinner date to coincide with financial conversations. We’ve never managed to have this work!

Running dates are different. For this, we are pros! We selected the Flower City Challenge in Rochester for this date weekend. It is close by and it would help push us to keep running after the two early spring races. Staged at the end of April, it was still quite chilly! Our plan to make this feel really special included a lovely dinner, plenty of time to hang out, and of course the run.

One great thing about races is that you have all the anticipation before the race, and you can share your race experiences with each other after. You can even do this without the hotel stay or a dinner out. Simply make a nice dinner at home and pick a movie. Just don’t forget to get all your clothes ready and look at the forecast for race day.

Read about my Flower City Challenge

When Xander was much younger, he wanted to try a half marathon. At the time, we rented out our house every Memorial Day weekend for Cornell Graduation. Most years we stayed local in a friend’s lakeside cottage, but that year we decided to run Boston’s Run to Remember. Now that Xander is in college in Boston, he thought it would be fun to run this again. He reached out to see if we wanted to join him. YES! Another carrot to keep me going. Now I would have to keep making sure I got myself out for regular runs.

We signed up for this race and put in the time to keep trained for a solid half marathon. A fun thing about a destination race where you meet up with others is that your group is bigger, and everyone brings a different experience to the gathering. This time, Xander has been working at getting very fast and his friend Jack would be running his first race ever (a 5 miler). Scott and I were excited to hang out in Boston in the springtime.

Read about Boston’s Run to Remember.

All good things come to an end. Races are expensive and budgets are not unlimited. I don’t recommend doing something like this every year, but every now and again, when your budget does permit, it is a great way to spur yourself forward and gain momentum.

For our last race we went with the Gorges Ithaca Half. No travel required - it started right down the road from our house! This time our daughter also signed up. 3 of the 4 Dawsons were on the course. A great part of this race is that it takes place on one of our favorite trails, The Black Diamond Trail. Another bonus is that with the exception of a few hills in the first several miles, it is a downhill race.

One surprising benefit I reaped by signing up for 5 half marathons that were pretty close together was to realize that I could run a little faster than I thought. I needed a confidence boost and this structure helped! Each time I made myself run to make sure that whatever race was next wouldn’t be too miserable, I also made myself a little stronger.

Read about my Gorges Half Marathon.

It takes a long while to form a habit, and sometimes even once formed, a good habit can be hard to keep. Running is great for me for so many reasons, but sometimes even after years of running I can feel like I only just started. In my early days of running I had to play games with myself for the entirety of every run - just make it to the lamp post and you can walk and mantras reminding myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

The year of the half marathon may be over (Scott and I don’t have any races scheduled between now and the end of 2025) but we did keep motivated over the summer with our Finger Lakes Runners Club Challenge. For fall, we are going to sign up for Cross Country. This means we’ll go to the workouts which will make me keep on running!