Superspy’s First Half!!
Hello LGF!!
I was introduced to this little corner of the Internet through running posts of my uncle’s, Dangerman. I made an account a couple of months ago knowing full well I would never post on here until I had a race of my own to share. That day has finally come!!
One whole week ago, I moved to Edinburgh to pursue an MSc in Applied Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. Wahoo!! What better way to get to know my new city than by running 13 miles right on through it? (This is what I thought to myself about 3+ months ago, looking online, seeing a half marathon that fit my schedule & was only about 9ish miles away from my new digs.) I have since learned that 9ish miles outside of Edinburgh is actually not Edinburgh. BUT the run through Musselburgh was beautiful! (Do the names here seem fake to you too?)
It all started back in April when I visited my family in Florida, & as usual, my uncle convinced my sister & I to go for a couple of runs with him. Here’s the thing about me & running, I love to run! I wouldn’t say I’m stellar, but I know my form’s ok, & it just makes me so happy doing it. At the end of the day, we all just want to do the things that make us happy, right? I’ve had issues with shin splints for a really long time, but my uncle convinced me that if I just bought the right shoes, everything would be ok. I have to admit, so far everything’s been ok.
*I have to side note here for a second. I don’t get to see my family in the states so often, but we’ve gotten ourselves into this routine where I come to south Florida & I run with my uncle & I do strength training with my dad & my little sis. Exercise never used to be a thing I do with the people I love, & now every time I have the opportunity it just makes it all so special. I got to experience this 2 whole times this year (April & August), & I’m all aglow every time I think about it.
Ok now, back to the half! I came back to Tel Aviv at the end of April, & all of the sudden I couldn’t stop running. I was making plans so I could increase my distance. I started listening to podcasts. I started reading books. I was slowly becoming a rambling nightmare to my friends. & then it hit me that I wanted to race.
After talking me out of jumping into a marathon, I found the Scottish Half Marathon, & my uncle came up with a plan! The rest is history. (Don’t worry, I’m about to tell you all about it.)
I was so blown away every time I would tack on another mile to what had previously been my longest distance. Definitely learned a lot about when to run & when not to run in the summer. Lacing up your running shoes at 17:00 in Tel Aviv in July is not the move, my friends. Was a bit challenging trying to persuade my pals to run with me, (am I becoming my uncle?,) but I did enlist a good friend to run one of my long runs with me in Park HaYarkon (our Central Park). (He’s called Josh. He got me through 7 miles. He brought along a speaker & we sang the whole time. It was great. We were very sweaty.)
It was no walk in the park, (pun intended,) but I wasn’t intimidated by the distance until peak week. Weeks 2 & 3 out from the race, I was back in Florida running with my uncle. The first weekend we sailed through an easy breezy 9 miles, no sweat. I was chatting through most of it, I think smiling through most of it. Something horrible happened the next week during our 10 miler, the last long run before the race. I wasn’t having it mentally. I knew I could crush 9 miles, because I’d already done it. I didn’t know how I’d get through that last mile. But I did.
So here’s how it all went down on race day…
Bright & early & bright eyed & bushy tailed, I got on an hour long bus ride to Musselburgh with a pal I found this week also running the race. We then shivered at the start line for…I think close to 2 hours. We were very early & it was freezing. I have yet to run in this country in anything less than a long sleeve shirt & leggings. It’s so cold all the time. After sliding on my uncle’s old sock I’d cut into a wristband to wipe my runny nose throughout the race, I checked my bag & did a little bit of stretching & an awful lot of dancing to keep warm. (I could not stop shaking through my stretches, it was insane.)
After a moment of silence for the queen, (UK, you know,) we were off! I had a blast. We ran through neighborhoods, with residences on their driveways cheering us on & little kids passing out jelly beans. We ran by the sea for a long time, which was beautiful!! We ran through part of the city center, also beautiful. I chose to run without headphones, because I didn’t want to miss out on any of the experience. I was a little nervous, because the only times I’d run without headphones before then was when I ran with my uncle. I’m so glad I was fully present in that experience. It was incredible taking it all in.
I chopped up the race mentally in this way…I set the halfway point at 10 miles. I knew 10 miles I had in the bag. I knew my brain was going to get in the way after that. The last mile of any run, landing is assured. You’ve already done the work. What’s one more mile? That’s what my uncle tells me. Really, it was just miles 11 & 12 I was worried about. & when you put it like that, what’s 2 more miles? I run 2 miles all the time. This logic mostly worked. I would also like to give a special thanks to the man at mile 11.5 screaming “You got this!” “It’s all in the bag now!”
& now here we are.
A lot of things are happening in my life right now that were dreams for a very long time — school, running a half marathon. Actually, today I finally changed the file names on my desktop. I had written “The Dream,” that was the file for grad school, & “The Dream — Part 2,” that was running. Now they just have regular old file names, because they’re no longer dreams, they’re my reality. Putting your mind to something is pretty cool, huh?