Marathon Monday- Lessons from Michelle

It's Monday again and with it comes the second installment of this wonderful little motivation feature segment of Marathon stories.  Today we feature the ever lovely and inspiring Michelle who is over at Movin it with Michelle; Running, Recipes and Real Life Adventures, on Facebook and blogging it up at movinitwithmichelle.com.  

I was very thankful that this story came through my email when it did and grateful that Michelle decided to share.  I had a rough VERY rough first week of marathon triaining myself, so this was exactly what I needed.  Being a mama who also suffered and still has days where I feel like I am STILL suffereing from PPD I found such solace in this story.  If you need some inspiration and tips on staying with it, learning from your mistakes and making the best of YOUR marathon expierence then sit back, grab a cup of tea or coffee or even better some water (got to get in ALL the water!!!) and listen as Michelle tells it like it was for HER! 

My distance running journey came about in 2007.  Although I had been a short distance running since the age of 11 or 12, my dream of running a marathon had merely been that: a dream.

After giving birth to my second daughter, I suffered from pretty severe depression.  Life...well...happens, and I just couldn't get past the hole I had put myself in.  So one day, my girlfriend and I were talking and the San Antonio Rock n Roll half marathon came up.  She had run it before, and said I should run it with her.  This discussion happened in late September, and the race was in mid November.  Of course I could do it, right?  After only 7-8 weeks of training, I ran and completed my first half marathon, and I was hooked.  But it would take 5 more years until my first full marathon would come to fruition.

I retired from the Air Force in 2011, and moved to the Chicagoland area with my family.  I was so excited to be close to my family again, as my sister only lives about an hour from us.  We decided that my first full marathon would be the Chicago Marathon.  It was my sister's first full in 2010, and I thought how cool it would be to follow in her footsteps, AND have her run it with me.  She agreed!  We registered together, although trained separately.  We a couple runs together, and she ran the Fox Valley 20 miler with me as our last long run.  We finished strong, and I was ready, right?

Wrong. 

Lesson number one: You never know what race day will bring.  It was really cold and damp out that day, and I just couldn't find my groove.  My Garmin wouldn't catch a signal, and my breathing was all over the place.  But my sister and I were out there...together.  And despite having a difficult race, as my knee blew out at mile 17, my sister and I stuck together.  Every. Single. Step.

And I will be forever grateful for her, as she helped me achieve this life long goal.  We crossed that line hand in hand, and even to this day my eyes well with tears thinking about it.

Lesson number two: Don't forget to enjoy your race!  No matter what race day gives you, SMILE, thank the volunteers and spectators, and be thankful you CAN run.  So many aren't as fortunate.

Lesson number three: One bad race doesn't make you a bad runner. The following year, I decided I needed redemption, a do-over so to speak so I registered for the 2013 Fox Valley 4:I PR'd at , and I felt great nearly the entire race.
Marathon.  I trained smarter, taking out the mid week long run and replacing it with biking/cross training.  I ran less miles, but smarter miles.  I kept my long run progression the same, and despite several ailments and injuries, the running fairies were with me on race day and I was able to shave off 58 minutes of my Chicago Marathon time, and have negative splits for the half. 

I swore I'd never run another full marathon, because my knees just don't like this distance.  BUT...

Lesson number five: Never say never.  In June I will be running my hometown marathon, The Grandma's marathon in Duluth Minnesota, with my sister.  I grew up spectating this race, and it's been on my bucket list ever since.  We plan on having FUN for this race, with no goal other than to finish.

I can't wait!

Final thoughts:

Training for, and running a full marathon is life changing.  It takes dedication, time, effort, and a whole lot of passion.  But it's worth every single second spent preparing to cross that finish line knowing YOU did this....YOU finished.  YOU kept movin' forward.  <3

What do you think?  Have you learned some of these lessons too?  How many marathons have you sworn you wouldn't run?

If you liked reading about Michelle make sure that you head over to her blog and show her some support.  She is always ALWAYS supporting everyone.