I am writing to you just before your third half marathon. You are NOT having a good time. You are routinely exacerbating a hip injury by continuing to run long distances. All the fun has been sapped out of your exercise, because it has become an awful obligation due to this upcoming race, on which you have already spent hundreds of dollars and therefore cannot, in good conscience, back out of.
I am writing you because you seem to forget about this each and every time you sign up for one of these half marathons. You need reminding.
And so here I am, future you, begging you to read this prior to signing up for any more half marathons! If you want a challenge, go for it. Set a new PR on the 5K and the 10K. Sign up for as many of those as you want! Try to run faster, try to do longer run intervals, try to make it so hills are not the death of your soul, run a half marathon distance on the elliptical at your local gym, but do NOT, please god do NOT, sign up for another half marathon thinking it will be a fun challenge! THEY SUCK. They hurt your body (which, let's face it, was just not meant for this kind of running) and they take the fun out of running. So just stop, okay? Just stop.
Sincerely,
Marianne
I don't disagree with your sentiments here. I'm not having fun either. But, the rigor of this training also has the benefit of offsetting the holiday bulge. And, I love having a fun sister weekend! Maybe we could look for 10k runs in western cities? Some of the half marathons also have 10k options. -ss
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