New year, new resolutions. “To live a bit healthier this year and to run a half marathon, my very first half marathon.”
Many resolutions sound like this. I am not the biggest fan of new year resolutions because I believe we must do everyday something to achieve our goal and we can start any day regardless of which day of the calendar we write.
If you have a goal to run a half marathon or try yourself in the team run, this is the right time to register, otherwise it will be sold out.
This week I have just finished my workplace`s group registration for the ING Night Marathon taking place on the 1st June. It made me think about my last year`s running experience.
Last year I have run my very first half marathon and this year I plan to run again with a bit better time.
If you are thinking to take the challenge it is better to sign up now. The sooner the better. This year 17,000 people can step to the start position and each year the places are sold out 2-3 months before the race.
I really considered the accomplishment of the half marathon as a big achievement in 2018. Since I was 20 years old and started to run the rounds of Margaret Island in Budapest, I kept telling myself that I will run a half marathon the next year, but never happened due to my lack of confidence never signed up and once when I registered I over trained and got injured right before the race. Also beginning of last year, I was a bit skeptical with my ability to run but signed up and was no chance to step back.
Everyone was telling me that “oh you should not worry, anyone can do this”. But still I was a bit scared, nervous and excited all at the same time. I did what I could do to prepare myself for the run, kept going with the vision to run it through and finish with a smile.
When I was standing at the start, I questioned lots of things... especially seeing all the other runners and comparing myself. How well am I trained for this? Could I have trained more often? Or maybe what I called training was not even the good plan to prepare and I can only run the first kilometers.
The start line let me to practice my special and funny habit (that I realized I have done already at some other shorter races before). I started to adjust my shoelaces and adjusted at least 5 more times if this would have been the most important thing how tight my shoelaces are bound in order to succeed. After being sure that both my shoelaces are perfectly bound one more look at the crowd of thousands of people, counting back from 10 till 0 and the race starts… . Here I am, here we go…this is what it is…I have to keep going, run it through and finish with a smile. A goal was set months ago and here is the time to deliver the results.
Of course this became a success story and all went well. I will write about the race experience itself after my second half marathon this year.
I would like to encourage everyone to register for this outstandingly beautiful night marathon (or part of it) in the heart of Luxembourg.
Thanks for reading,
Barbara