I had originally planned for this race to include a nice, long weekend in Philadelphia. I really wanted to do some sightseeing and take time off of work. However, it didn’t quite work out that way since I had to be in Seattle for a week-long summit. I ended up shuffling some things around and I went from Denver to Philadelphia to Seattle, and then back home to Denver in the span of 10 days. It was quite the whirlwind trip!
Aside from eating our way through the various restaurants and bakeries of Philly, we had a very mellow weekend. Our Airbnb came with a cat (Gracie was her name), and she was the sweetest companion we could’ve asked for.
I think this was the race where I began to notice that something was off. My interest in the half marathon distance started to wane. Maybe it was because I ran the course before, and it was just a boring loop around the river. Maybe it was the weather? It started off chilly and then ended really hot. Maybe I hadn’t fully recovered from my ankle injury and I went too quickly, too soon. I had a marathon in my sights but running long distance felt very tedious. I didn’t necessarily hate the run, but I hated the feeling of still feeling unaccomplished by such a long distance. This would be half marathon #47 for me, and it seems as though I will stall for a bit on that number.
It feels so odd that a distance that used to be so easy for me has suddenly felt so emotionally cumbersome. Maybe it’s the repetition of visiting the same cities, or maybe I’m genuinely tired of the half marathon distance. It turns out that this would be my last half marathon for awhile.
Amara in Training 