I’ve decided to change my #10 item on my 30 Before 30 List.
Why? Well, because I can. Kidding…sort of.
Actually, I’ve been thinking about my #10 item: “Run at least one half marathon a year” and at the end of that I had “(though this could really be determined on #29)” which was about starting a family. And while I won’t get into the whole starting a family thing (ask me again in about 3 or 4 years), I will say that the little line in parenthesis basically meant that that item was destined to change. You can’t just put a variable in there from the beginning.
So I am officially changing my number #10 item from: Run at least one half marathon a year
to: Participate in an at least one organized endurance event each year.
I’m participating in my second sprint triathlon in two weeks, and after speaking with another spectator at the Hub’s soccer game yesterday, I decided that I don’t want to limit myself to just half marathons. The lady I was speaking to and myself were exchanging stories about different endurance events we had participated in and ones we would like to. She has never ran a half marathon (she cycles), so I was telling her about some in the area and suggested a couple that would be good for a first timer if ever she did decide to run one. And then she told me about the Olympic length triathlon she was training for, which got me super intrigued. And wanting to do one. The distances really aren’t much further than the sprint triathlon I’m doing in two weeks—the swim is a quarter mile longer, the bike portion is only 5 miles more, and the run is only another 2 miles. I’ll see how I do in two weeks before I sign up for one, but I think I’ve convinced myself that I really want to do one.
And then I think I finally convinced the Hubs to do the MS 150 (also know as Bike MS) around Columbia, MO next fall. I’ve been telling him he should do it for the last couple of years, and after I said I would do it with him, he agreed. Looks like I’ll be working on cycling. Riding 150 miles over two days kind of really freaks me out.
So whether it’s a half (or full) marathon, biking a long distance, or doing a triathlon, it doesn’t matter. I just want to challenge myself to do something other than run a half marathon. This doesn’t mean I’m giving up on my half marathon goal, at least in my mind. I’ve done two, so I know I can run them. I know that number is nothing compared to others (like my aunt who has ran 22 of them or the pro runners), but it’s more than zero. I do want to run more halves to get better and faster at them, but I also want to open my third eye to other types of events.
Plus, my knees with thank me. They don’t like half marathons too much.
—m.