Jay Jay French

This has been a hell of a week...and it’s only Tuesday.

A little over three months ago, I set a personal goal to do a half-marathon by October. I spent 16 weeks training for it by completing 5 workouts per week, every week, over that time period. While I was nervous about the race, I came to think of it as the reward for putting in all that time training. Simply changing my mindset to think of it in a more positive manner—a payoff vs. an obligation—made all the difference in my anxiety level in the days (and seconds) leading up to the race. I’m happy to report that this past Sunday was race day and I completed it at a pace that exceeded my expectations.

I left this training program and race experience with two related insights:

Every run has a purpose. The program consisted of short and long runs. Some required constant reps going up hills. Others required numerous speed intervals involving alternating “gears.” My personal favorites were the LSD runs—Long Slow Distance—where I could get lost in the rhythm of a run. All of these runs served to make me a better runner (and person). A finish line is just another starting line in disguise. Just because the plan is over and the race was completed doesn’t mean that’s the end of the work. Running is a core component of my lifestyle and there will always be another race to run.