What’s your number?

Everyone keeps asking me ‘How many half marathons have you done?’. 

And this is actually a very confusing question for me right now.  I can’t figure out if they are asking only about this year or about my entire life.  I also get the feeling that people think I just started running this year.  So, I normally say ‘7 this year’ and hope that it answers the mail.  Because I honestly didn’t know the other answer to how many I’ve done my entire life. 

A few little forgotten details like this have bothered me this year, including the answer to the question ‘What was your best marathon time?’.  I’ve done two marathons in my life and am proud of the lobotomy that occurred afterwards.  I’ve never even thought of what my time was during those two marathons until this year.  I told Coach Bob and my mentor Steven Jenkins that I didn't remember when they asked me about my best marathon time. You would have thought that I grew another head and sprouted a tail.  They were completely flabbergasted by my non-remembering response.   ‘How do you not remember what your marathon time is???‘ they both very confusedly asked and I just shrugged.  It was never very important to me.  None of my times ever were and neither was the # of half marathons until this year.  I always saw half marathons as social time, mainly with my friend Jenfer.  I saw it as 2 ½ hours of uninterrupted time to spend with one of my best friends.  No boys, no distractions, just her.  And I can only remember all the half marathons that I’ve done by remembering the people I’ve done them with.

So I sat down one day and figured this out.  Because I’m tired of shrugging my shoulders. 

Marathons: I’ve done two.  The first I did alone in New Orleans in 2007 with a time of 5:07 and then 2^nd was the VA Beach Shamrock Marathon with Jenfer in 2011 with a time of 5:37.  Which I don’t want to talk about.  Because I was better trained for the 2^nd one and it makes me slightly angry to talk about the 20 min time disparity.  I attribute it to age. I’ve got a good mind to rectify the situation after this year tho.

Half Marathons: It took me a long time to do the research on this question.  As of today, I’ve done….dunt dunt da dahhh…wait for it….keep waiting…I’m not ready to tell you yet…still wait...ok..16!!!!  And will hopefully end up with 21 by the end of this year, knock on some wood!    So here is a little re-cap:

2006

·         Mercedes Half Marathon, Birmingham – 2:31  This was my very first half and I had only run 8 miles total beforehand.  Jenfer kept Carden and I at a steady eddy pace and it was thrilling.  Wonderful.  I was sincerely hooked.  I remember hitting 9 miles and yelling ‘This is the furthest I’ve ever run!!!’.  I can honestly say that I owe Jenfer everything for getting me into running long distance.  There is always somebody that did this for you, that pushed you to try and she is my person.  We made a vow to run a half every year together, which we have so far!

2007

·         Mercedes Half Marathon, Feb 11^th – 2:32 Talk about a consistent time between years.  Again, this run was with Jenfer.  But two weeks later I did my first marathon.  Looking back on this, I can’t believe this is how it went down…I did two half marathons before attempting a full.  What a loon.

2008

·         Mercedes Half Marathon Feb 10^th – 2:32 With Jenfer again, followed two weeks later by

·         Mardi Gras Half Marathon Feb 24^th – 2:31  again, how consistent time wise was I? 

2009

·         Shamrock Half Marathon March – 2:13!  BAM, that’s what training does for ya!  This would be my PR for years to come.

·         Rock N Roll Va Beach September – 3:05  BAM, that’s what only running 5 miles tops before a half marathon will do for you.  I hurt for days!  Jenfer was a little disappointed in me and I had to sit down b/c I could no longer walk.  Yea…

2010 – Let’s call 2010 ‘the year of not training’

·         Disney Princess, Mar 7^th  – 2:47  I was on a roll about not training, mind over matter I say!  More pain, the less gain.  I did enjoy the race but I’m pretty sure that Jenfer wanted to kill me seeing as not training was beginning to be pretty consistent.  And I enjoyed hurting so much that I did it again two weeks later…

·         Shamrock Half Marathon, Mar 22 – 3:02  Did I mention that I hadn’t really trained?  Oh and I was still hurting after Disney.  2010 wasn’t the best running year.  And I stopped running shortly after, you totally get what you put into it...duh.

2011

·         This year had started with the Shamrock Marathon.  Jenfer and I ran it together and that is another story for another time…

·         Divas Puerto Rico 2:49  - this was one of the hottest races I’ve ever done.  Although I had trained up to 11miles beforehand, I just couldn’t get past the heat.

2012   - We know these!!

·         Jan - Auburn ‘Who stole my Ham’ – 2:45ish

·         Feb – Run the Reagan – 2:22

·         Mar – DC RnR – 2:24

·         Apr – Nashville RnR – 2:23

·         May – W’burg – 2:45

·         June – San Diego – 2:10 New PR!

·         July – Chicago – 2:28

So, there you go…those are my #s!  Now you know my deepest darkest running secrets. 

July - Chicago Rock N Roll Half

This past weekend was the July Chicago Half Marathon, #7 of 12in12in2012!! I was so excited to see my cousin Anne, who is my ‘LLS Hero’ Uncle Pat’s daughter.  We have always been close and grew up right down the street from each other.  So, it was really special that she was able to take part in this. 

I have to be honest in that I was not trained well for this race.  My long runs had fallen off and I just have felt lousy the past month in regards to running.  The heat really sucks it out of me and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t tired of doing a half marathon every month!  Therefore, I was a little scared about this run.  This is classic ‘Megan Natter’ racing, where I don’t train well but still do the race.  And this was what I have been trying to avoid this year by doing a race each month.   But I decided to go into this race with the simple goal of seeing 13.1 miles of Chicago, a city that I’ve never seen!  During a race, we so often forget to just look around.  We are so hunched over concentrating on the race that you rarely look up.  Chicago has a fantastic skyline, so while I ran the race I just made sure to look up, to look around and to enjoy the run. 

The race started and a few miles in, I literally remember thinking ‘Hello old friend’ and smiling.  There is something so familiar and comforting in a long distance run.  And I realized that I had truly missed it.  Why had I been dreading this so much recently? The first 8 miles went by in a breeze and I thought to myself…’Maybe the running gods are smiling upon me today’.  Ahhhh…sweet hope.

The last 5 miles went downhill pretty fast.  But I’m proud of myself for not getting angry with myself.  I laughed it off and thought, ‘Did you really expect to have an awesome race when you didn’t really train? Silly Megan!’.  You truly run the race you train for and I had trained for an 8 mile race, not a 13 mile one!  But for once, it was ok.  I picked my head up and looked around, I smiled and just kept moving, albeit a little slower!

My Uncle Jim and his wife Linda, along with my cousin Anne, were there cheering me on and I was able to see them 3 times during the race!  What a huge pick me up!  I’m always so thankful for spectator supporters.  It is hard to describe how amazing it is that someone comes out to watch you run.  Linda had even made me a sign, which as many of you know, I love my signs.  I’m amazed that I’m special enough for someone to make me a sign!

This year is a learning experience.  Some lessons you can see coming and others are just complete surprises.  I didn’t expect to enjoy this race as much as I did.  I fully expected to be miserable.  Honestly, I had a blast even amidst doing only an ‘ok’ race.  But the biggest lesson I learned during the Chicago half was that I do truly like to run!!  After 10 years of telling everyone that I hate running but do it to stay in shape, I realize now that I was lying to myself.  It has taken 7 half marathons in 7 months to step back and see that running is a part of me.  It is actually something that I love.  What verified this realization was seeing the pictures my Uncle Jim took of me on the course.  In every single picture, there is really only one emotion that describes my face and that emotion is Joy.  What a surprise!