Marathon Monday Talk

Hi everyone, and Happy Marathon Monday!  I'm sure most of you know what that means, but in case you don't- today is the day of the Boston Marathon!

With that in mind, I thought it was about time that I talk about my own marathon.  You might have noticed that I stopped sharing training updates a few weeks ago, and haven't really been talking about the race much at all.  With the race only 6 days away, I figured it was time to do some marathon talk.  I have to warn you- this post is pretty much a dump of all of my thoughts (with no pictures to boot), so I hope that some of it makes sense.

I decided not to run the Gettysburg Marathon.

If you've been following me this year, you know that this has been my goal race for the spring.  I've been training really hard, got PR's in all of the races that I ran in training, and was feeling great.  Then, a few weeks ago something changed.

It was around the time that Dan and I put in the offer for our house, and life just seemed to get real.  We were staying up late most nights filling out paperwork, meeting with contractors and inspectors, negotiating with the seller, on and on and on.  Buying a house is stressful- even worrying about money and figuring out how we would pay the down payment and closing costs was scary, then we had to figure out what repairs we could afford right away for the house to be safe, and what could wait.

With all of that going on, most days I just didn't have time to go running.  I know that I could have woken up early to run before work or go during lunch time, but I just felt exhausted all the time.  I had trouble sleeping at night (I'm one of those people who stresses at night and becomes an insomniac), and would come home from a stressful day at work and just want to stay in bed until I had to go to work in the morning.

Then about a week ago, I began to realize that I just can't handle it all sometimes. I'm completely fine with admitting that now, but there was a time (very recently) where I would have just fought through my stress and pain and exhaustion just to finish the race.  I was still thinking about doing that, and risking injury (right before a big trip, mind you) just say that I did it, and to prove that I could do it all.

For those of you with a blog or are on social media, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about- the fear of letting people down when you put a goal out there.  Before I had a blog, it would have been so easy for me to just not run.  Who would know or care besides my family?  Now, I always feel like I'm letting down my readers if I don't complete a race or don't get a PR.  I feel like I have to be perfect all the time, or I'm doing something wrong.

After I had this realization that I don't have to handle everything and the world will still keep revolving if I don't run the marathon, I immediately felt a rush of calm wash over me.  It felt like I was stepped out of a pool of quicksand and I was finally able to walk on regular ground again.  That is the best feeling ever, and I knew I was making the right decision.

Ever since then, I've felt so much more energetic during the day, and more like myself  Plus, I can quit playing the song "Stressed Out" over and over again ;).  I'm even helping out around the house, because I can't use the excuse of "I'm running a marathon in two weeks!" when Dan asks me to help him with manual labor!

Anyone still with me?  Or did you just jump down to the end of the post? Either way- Here's my "too long; didn't read" for this post: races will always be there, and sometimes it's just not the right time in your life to run one.  That's ok!  There's always a season for everything in life, and do what's best for you.  

linking up with Holly, Tricia and Katie