For the last few years, I have participated in the Still I Run May Run Streak for Mental Health Awareness. Each time I have done it, I have thought that there would be no way I could run or walk at least a mile every single day in May. And every year I have made it to the end of the month, I have done it.
Surprisingly this year was no different. In fact, this year didn’t seem like a struggle at all. As I mentioned in my last training recap, April was hard. I was so exhausted from grief that I didn’t feel like doing much of anything other than surviving. Slowly but surely, my motivation to run came back. I found myself wanting to exercise – craving a run or yoga workout, wanting to work on strength. My husband was a huge cheerleader throughout the month, riding his bike along for most of the runs I did, even the short ones. I got to run with my friends again. Life is starting to feel kind of like normal.
It isn’t normal, though. There’s a huge gaping hole in my life that I think about almost constantly. Every single day I hear the sound of my dad’s voice telling me, “Your mom died.” Some days, I fully believe it. Others I cannot believe it could be possible. Just like the name of the mental health running community I am a part of, despite the grief, the difficulty, the sadness, the complete overturning of my normal life… Still, I run.
- January 2020: 50.0 miles / January 2021: 77.7 miles
- February 2020: 78.6 miles / February 2021: 26.0 miles
- March 2020: 84.3 miles / March 2021: 55.2 miles
- April 2020: 96.4 miles / April 2021: 28.4 miles
- May 2020: 83.3 miles / May 2021: 73.3 miles
- June 2020: 72.5 miles
- July 2020: 84.0 miles
- August 2020: 94.7 miles
- September 2020: 50.1 miles
- October 2020: 53.7 miles
- November 2020: 69.3 miles
- December 2020: 86.0 miles
- TOTAL 2020: 902.9 miles / TOTAL 2021: 260.6
May 2021 Marathon in a Month: 5:13:27, 11:58 min/mile average pace. I started “Marathon in a Month” back in November. So far, the months rank:
- November 2020: 5:09:37, 11:49 min/mile
- May 2021: 5:13:27, 11:58 min/mile
- March 2021: 5:19:11, 12:11 min/mile
- April 2021: 5:20:10, 12:13 min/mile
- December 2020: 5:25:24, 12:25 min/mile
- January 2021: 5:28:39, 12:33 min/mile
- February 2021: 6:02:29, 13:50 min/mile
I started this off because of a Marathon in a Month race put on by Indianapolis Monumental Marathon in November 2020 and then kept doing it. I am now genuinely curious if this might help predict my marathon time for October! Only time will tell, right?
Celebrations in May: I participated in the virtual MOM race again this year. Normally this is a 5k that is held in Royal Oak. In 2020 and 2021 the race turned virtual and turned to 30 minutes of activity. Last year I still ran the 5k distance and this year I decided to see how far I could run in 30 minutes. I managed to get in 2.62 miles in that time!
I also completed the Still I Run May Run Streak for Mental Health Awareness month. I ran at least one mile every day in May.
I earned a bunch of Garmin badges, too! Check them out.
What’s next? I am wrapping up Hal Higdon’s Novice Marathon Base Training plan this weekend with an 8 mile run. Monday starts marathon training officially! My training plan spreadsheet actually has 5 different plans built into it: Jenny Hadfield’s Beginner & Intermediate Marathon training plans, Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 & 2 Marathon training plans and Hal Higdon’s Marathon 3 training plan. I put them all into the spreadsheet based on my past experiences. I am an experienced marathon runner, but it has been 2 years since I ran a marathon and I have been through a lot in those last 2 years. I have learned that nothing really goes how we expect it to.
I also know that my goals tend to change throughout training. I might start off with a goal of wanting to get a personal best time. Then I might decide I just want to run for fun. My training might go super well and I find myself motivated to try for a certain time goal. Other races may pop up, or friends might decide they want to run with me, and that can change what I want out of the race.
My current focus for this marathon is to have a really good training season. I want to make sure I am doing cross training (especially strength training) and I want to focus on nutrition. I think my followers want to see this, too; I am the “RD on the Run” after all!
RD on the Run 