Between recovering from my half marathon and traveling this past weekend, I didn’t get too much running in the last week. I flew down to Texas on Friday for my very good friend Shao’s wedding, where I was actually in the wedding party! I was hoping to sneak in a few miles between all the crazy wedding shaneigans, but that didn’t happen…of course. I’m super jealous of people who are good at keeping up running while traveling because that is NOT a strong suit of mine.
All day Friday, I was planning in my head every detail of my next run, which I aimed to do that night. I was flooded with anxiety of feeling like missing this run would be detrimental to my training, especially since this part of training (3 weeks out) is when to generally peak in mileage. After a long day of traveling and rehearsal dinner, I tried running at 11pm while the other bridesmaids were hanging out, but the treadmill at the gym was broken…I was faced with either running outside in the dark in a small town I didn’t know or calling it a day and joining the girls for the sleepover. You can guess probably what I chose 🙂
I came to the realization that my rigid running thoughts were taking away from the whole weekend, and more importantly taking away from being a good bridesmaid for Shao. It was her big day and I was suppose to be there for her; your friends only get married once! I decided to let go of needing to run that weekend and the entire trip became so much more relaxed.
I think us runners tend to be ultra type-A people, and it’s certainly hard for us to accept when we miss runs due to things like injuries, work, or life just getting in the way. One of the best lessons I’ve learned from marathons (besides approximately 700 life lessons) is how to be flexible and to accept that life comes first. We can’t plan everything in life, but being sincere, treating people well, and serving our friends – that all means so much more than having everything go to plan.
I’ll have another post later this week on the wedding – it was sure a fun one! Until then, hope you all have a great week 🙂
Week 10 of marathon training
Monday: REST
Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: 8 miles
Thursday: Yoga to the People with Anna
Friday-Sunday: REST
I Run Like A Girl 