How I Found My Mojo

After the wheels came off in my last half marathon, I went into a running funk for a few days. Then at some point that week, I got a crazy idea. If I can’t run FAST, I’ll just run FAR. I decided I wanted to have a running adventure. A friend of mine was thinking the same thing, and we found ourselves booking a room in a tiny little town in West Virginia for the Hatfield-McCoy Marathon on June 11. It is a no-pressure deal. It’s hot, extremely hilly, and partially unpaved, including running over a swinging bridge at one point--- meaning I hold no illusions of getting a PR. A race without pressure is my kind of race right now.

So, the Saturday after the Terrible Tom King, instead of taking a recovery week from the half, I ran a 10-miler and it turned out to be at a faster pace than the half! That’s when the mojo started to come back. The following week I had an ok 12—not great, but not terrible. I was hurting a little at the end because it was sort of hilly. The next week I had some good speed work including a new one-mile time trial PR at an 8:12 mile. (I still think I can hit 8 in the next few months.) I did a couple of hard Crossfit workouts, too, and ran 28 miles in all. My 14.5 miler went just fine. I didn’t break any speed records, but I finished and recovery was quick. By the next day, I felt really good. I had a drop down week with a few short runs and some great 800’s.

I love running again.