Most people wake up in the middle of the night because their mind is running a mile a minute. Two days after Christmas I woke up in the middle of the night because I realized that I wanted to run a mile every ten minutes, 26.2 times. At 12:06 am, on December 27th, I did what no one in my family ever thought I would do and signed up for the Vermont City Marathon.
Initially, I signed up because I simply wasn’t sure if I could run 26.2 miles. That’s a lot! I’m still not sure, but I’m curious about what my body can do. I’ve always loved spending the day crushing long distances on my bike, and once ran 10 miles on a whim, but in general the mental and physical challenges that come with long distance adventures excites me.
I’ve never competed in any races, but have always loved to run as a means to explore, have time to think and release any forms of stress. Maybe it’s the excitement of something new or the endorphins speaking but after my 1st week of Hal Higdon's marathon training plan, I’m beginning to feel a difference in my stamina, energy levels, and metabolism. The best part so far has got to be being hungry all the time.
I think that everyone has their thing that they can always rely on to bring happiness into their life. For so many people, running is their thing. It offers them time in their busy lives to check in with themselves, with others, and get lost outside. One week in and I already feel the magic.
While working at Skirack I’ve been crowdsourcing tips and tricks for training and race day by chatting with everyone from seasoned marathon runners to fellow first-timers. My goal for the next few months is to share those tips from others and my own experiences with you. If there’s anything specifically that you’d love to know more about such as gear, nutrition, routes, etc please feel free to comment below and share your own thoughts and experiences.
Whether you too are gearing up for a long run or an unknown wild adventure here’s a little reminder that...
You are strong + you got this.
- Emily Hoffman, Skirack's Run Specialist. Click here to learn more about Emily.
P.S. If you’re having a hard time getting motivated to go for a run, find a song that makes you dance, blast it, and then go and crush your run. Maggie Rogers just came out with an album filled with those if you need help finding a song!
Click here for more blog posts on training for the Vermont City Marathon
Photo Captions:
Photo Header: Emily runs the Burlington Bike Path - and through puddles on a training run.
Photo 1: Emily takes a stretch break from her marathon training run along Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont.