The RunRaleigh Half Marathon: Race #6 of 52

As I made the early, and very hazy, morning drive from a friends house in Fayetteville, NC to Raleigh - I realized my expectations for this race were fairly low. 

It was not very expensive - and that was even with not signing up until about two months prior to the race. 

RunRaleigh was a newer, local race, put on by a running store in Raleigh. Whenever the start line is in a mall parking lot - I hedge my expectations accordingly. 

This race did everything to prove me wrong. 

As I picked up my packet - I was handed my race #, along with a long sleeve white shirt. This was a treat. I have SO many race shirts - the long sleeve shirts are a welcome change. 

And then the beautiful beer glass with the race logo and date imprinted on them were handed to me, I was impressed.

With time so spare, I wandered up the hill to Starbucks - this was the first time I paid attention to this mall, which was a rather impressive collection of mid to high end specialty stores. I had never been to Raleigh before, but the charming streets of the city had me wishing I had left more time in my schedule to explore. 

The race began up-hill, a blessing I would feel later as I came down this same hill across the finish.  The city streets were replaced later with beautiful paths carved out for recreation. Settling into 5 and 1 intervals, I enjoyed my walk breaks to take in my surroundings. 

When the race was over and I reexamined the elevation map on my Nike Plus App I realized that the steep nature of the climb at mile eleven had not been in my imagination!  

This was the 6th race in my chase run towards 52 in 365 - and my 4th in 9 days. I was sore, and spent time during this run reflecting on everything I had done wrong between the North Face Endurance Challenge and last weekend, and this weekends races.

I was not eating enough right after the race - and I needed to be stretching more. Dropping 10 lbs wouldn't hurt me either. 

Throughout this race - I was also reminded of one of the most supportive groups at many of the races I do - Black Girls Run.

In 2009 this organization was developed with the goal of encouraging health and fitness in the African-American community while providing encouragement and resources to new and experienced runners. 

While I am not African American - I have still been the recipient of their outpouring encouragement at MANY races in the past. At this race in Raleigh my tired limbs needed the emotional support they provide throughout the race course. After I crossed the finish line - I watched this group "running in" several girls - many of whom poured out tears of exhaustion and triumph as the beautiful finishers medal was placed around their neck. 




This is what these events are about for me - and so many other women. Finishing. Being better. Setting a goal and seeing it through. Holding that medal in the palm of your hand and realizing that nothing is impossible - if you just put one foot in front of the other and head towards the finish line. A lesson to remember in all of the sweet journeys of our lives.... 

Chasing the sun

So, I have been working on this schedule for my "40 at 40" adventure... at the beginning running 40 half marathons between my 40th and 41st birthdays seemed daunting.  

I had considered counting all races, and then limited it to 10k and up, changed that to 10 miles and up... and finally committed to only the races 13.1 or longer counting in the official tally. 

Not to long ago I joined half-fanatics. On their website they ask a series of questions to determine if their group is a good fit for you...

Do your thoughts switch to the next scheduled race immediately after finishing a Half Marathon?  YES!!!

Are you signed up for more than one race right now? YES!!!

Do you know specifics about many of the Half Marathons? Dates, courses, years run, etc.? YES!!!

Are your closets and dressers filled with race t-shirts? YES!!!
Have you run races on back to back weekends? Or better yet back to back days? YES!!!

These are just a few of the questions, but my answers told me that this is where I belonged.  After filling out my application, I was informed that I would be entering at the "3 Moon" level of Saturn - my qualification was having run 4 Half Marathons in 4 different states in less than 51 days back in 2011. 

The next day I got the E-Mail:

Feeling more excited than I should possibly admit to being committed..... I updated my profile with the 40 half marathons I have run between 2006 and now. Then I added my upcoming races... at the time 32.  Races of greater that 13.1 miles count, up to but NOT including full marathons... (the marathon maniacsclub tracks those). 


That is when I saw it.  The highest level of achievement a Half Fanatic can reach:
                  The ten moon level - THE SUN
How do you reach the sun? There are three ways:

          1. 52 Half Marathons or more within 365 days.

          2. 30 Half Marathons in 30 US states, Countries, or Canadian               Provinces (any combination) within 365 days.

          3. 20 Countries within 365 days.

I knew immediately If I did it, I would have to do #1. The travel required for #2 and #3 would be next to impossible for me in a year.... but 52??? That's, crazy.

But... I am already doing 40... what is 12 more?  The decision was made before I said it out loud... I was going to chase the sun. 

Knowing that there would undoubtedly be weekends that I could not run, especially getting into the warm summer months, doubles would be necessary. 
There are some great tools online to help with this.  My personal favorite is on the Running in the USA website.  Here you can search for races on your own by state or by weekend... for for those looking to do doubles, either for #s or for state count (very popular in the 50 states half marathon or marathon clubs), they actually have a "50 staters gadget", where you can search for races close together on the same weekend.

The most useful resource however, in my opinion, are good running friends. Those that understand and support this passion, those that have run a lot of races, and/or talk to others that do. Those people are all around, and I have met many of them in Facebook groups like Bling Hos and Running the World.  

My friend Jeff is one of these supporters and has been so helpful in helping me plot this journey. Sometimes he is the source of information, and sometimes the voice of reason: like telling me I would be disappointed doing the half in little rock when I saw the marathon for the full - so Instead we looked and found a good double this weekend. Good advice... but I will run Little Rock in 2015.... after my feet are firmly planted on the sun. 

So now the journey begins... as I sit here tonight, I have 3 weeks and three days. Time to get moving.