It’s been long enough since the race that I can be objective…

My Topic today is: Five Things I Learned From My Third Marathon

1.You get what you put in.

In other words, if you don’t train well, the race will be harder.

For many reasons, I didn’t take this race as seriously as last year.

Mostly because even with decent training last year, the race didn’t go well.

I decided to do what I could and not re-arrange my life in order to get all the miles in.

As a result, I struggled from mile 2 to mile 26.2.

2.I can do hard things.

That being said, I was determined, no matter what, to FINISH!!

There were many times that I really wasn’t sure that I could do it.

I give credit to those spectators and volunteers who offered support the whole way.

3.It was much harder than the first one but not as hard as the second.

As they say, “anything can happen on race day.” Last year, my calf cramped and I had to walk the last 16 miles.

This year, five years older than the first one, I just felt less prepared for the distance.

So I walked a lot…

Maybe age does matter…

4. I have awesome friends.

Not only did they travel to NYC to support me.  But so many of my friends tracked me, encouraged me and posted congratulatory messages.

I am a lucky runner.

5. I do not want a redo.

Last year, I wanted to run it again to enjoy the race more and I also wanted to run it with my friends.

Now, I want to run shorter races (maybe regain some speed) and go to NYC next November and cheer on those friends.

6. I’m glad that I did it.

There would have been FOMO and many what ifs if I decided to defer until next year.

Despite all the negatives, running the NYC Marathon is an awesome experience in so many ways.  I don’t regret my decision to go and gut it out.

Happy Running! Have you learned anything from one of your big races? Please share. 

 

 

 

 

 

---

It’s Friday so I’m also linking up with bloggers, Me (My First 5K and More), Running With Attitude, Run Laugh Eat Pie, Runs with Pugs, and The Running Teacher!

So Join in!

And don’t forget to link back to your hostesses and visit some other blogs!!

Join the link party!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef