On a recent business trip, I asked the concierge at my hotel for advice about where to go running. “Are you training for a marathon?” he asked. Nope. I’m racing 5Ks, I told him. He gave me a puzzled look…
I enjoy longer runs. Hell, I ran a half-marathon while living at the hospital when the twins were a week old. This post has an interesting perspective and research to indicate that longer runs are overrated and excelling at short long-distance runs is the way to go.1
The 2015 Austin Marathon was originally planned to be the crowning achievement of the running season, but after the twins were born, I completely failed at training. A month before the race, I switched to the half distance. The 2015 Austin Half-Marathon doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, though.
Whoever thought having the race near Valentine’s Day—I’m curious the rationale. After spending time away from my wife to train, I’m going to disrupt the annual romantic-for-no-reason-besides-a-random-date-on-the-calendar celebration to be in fighting form for the race?
The day before the race was Valentine’s Day, but more importantly, the twins went to sleep early for the first time in a long time. Sure, I could have called it a night early. Instead Vanessa and I talked—something that isn’t as simple as it used to be since there’s almost one of the five kids needs some type of attention or something else needed to keep the household running.
To keep the story short, we talked for a few hours and had a glass of champaign. Perfect pre-race preparation.
This is a story about marathons, babies, the NICU, and more. To skip ahead, please consider making a donation to Hand to Hold, a charity that provides support to parents of NICU babies. The start of most of my training runs.
I like to run. While my frame doesn’t scream out the running type, I seemingly do pretty well at longer runs. I’m too stubborn to stop. Before this season, I’ve ran two Austin Half-Marathons, one full marathon, and a fair number of < 10k events, plus the training for those events. I haven’t ran with any true purpose. I know I should exercise, but running, in and of itself, isn’t great for weight loss or strength building.
