This month marks exactly five years since I ran my first (and only) half marathon. Those pictures came across my facebook history and it brought back all of the memories. From the overtraining and rookie mistakes that killed my relationship with running, to the joy of accomplishing a goal I set out to reach. You’re probably like why in the world would you choose to write about your experience years later? For some odd reason, I never really shared much about it on the blog. Maybe because it wasn’t all positive and I tend to shy away from sharing negative things. However, the negatives came from my inexperience and rookie mistakes. So this post was five years in the making and hopefully will spare someone else from making the same mistakes this race season!
What I Learned From My Half Marathon Training
Let’s start with where it began. I was never a runner, but I wanted to give myself a challenge and a goal after having my first baby, so I signed up for a Valentine’s themed half marathon with Erica and proceeded to run my little heart out. My first run wasn’t a small one, I went big. For months prior, I ran nearly every day, for miles. My oldest son was just a little guy at the time, so I would pop him in my B.O.B. stroller, he would nap it out and I would spend a good hour or two running. Even in the winter and in the snow (of course, not with the baby in tow) – I ran; 10, 12, 13 miles at a time. Which leads me to my first rookie mistake – overtraining.
I Hurt My Knees – When I decided to run like Forest Gump – I also didn’t add much else to my fitness routine. I ran, ran and ran some more. Since I wasn’t the best at easing myself into running and wasn’t adding any strength training elsewhere, my hips were weak – which led to an IT band injury. I was out running one day, then felt a painful burning on the outside of my thigh, right above my knee, that just wouldn’t go away. After a few weeks full of gimpy running, because I figured I could just keep running right through it, I ended up seeing a Sports Medicine Doctor. She gave me a knee wrap, and exercises to strengthen my hips. She said it would be best to give it some rest, but rest wasn’t what I was interested in. I kept running, so it never went away. Until of course, I just quit running all together because of the pain. It did eventually subside after I stopped all of the running, however, the pain would come and go for months during other workouts or just from walking even. Since, I’ve worked to build a lot of strength in my hips and keep my legs fully stretched! So lesson learned, more is not always better. You have to ease into running, or any type of workout, and have a nice blend of strength and stretching to compliment your running. My knees weren’t the only thing that started to hurt during my running – my stomach started to hurt too.
Runners Stomach is Real – I didn’t like to have a lot of water sloshing around in my stomach when I would run, so I did a lot of running without rest and without water. When I was done, I would get these horrible stomach cramps. They would go away after some water and rest, so I just ignored them. I went on to run the race – sans water, because I was nervous of getting a cramp. I ran the hardest I had ever run during that race and was left with bad stomach cramps after. I felt a little like I had the flu even. According to my really accurate Google research, when you run long distances, your body can distribute a lot of your blood to your legs and heart, and in turn takes it away from your digestive system. If that happens to you, you end up with stomach cramps, pain and other unpleasant symptoms. I don’t know about all of that for sure, but what I do know is my stomach was a hot mess after that big race. When I chose to forgo the water breaks during my run, I also set myself up for dehydration, which only made the situation worse. You’re probably reading this going, duh Brooke – drink some water. I learned that lesson the hard way, but you can bet I had water breaks from then on.
I Didn’t Lose a Ton of Weight From Running Alone – I took to running thinking it was going to be great for getting back in shape after having the baby. Not that the cardio wasn’t good for my heart and an important part of my fitness routine, but I didn’t lose much weight from running alone. In case you’re wondering, I was also the strictest I’ve ever been with my diet during this time. I don’t know what the reasoning was, maybe I didn’t eat enough to keep up with all of the activity. What I do know is when I started to back off of running daily and integrated a run here or there with strength training I started to see better results. My love for mixing things up was born here.
Following that one big race, I did go on to do other races – never another half marathon, but I did a few 5Ks and 10Ks. My knee kept hurting and my babe got bigger (and less down with riding in the stroller), so my running dwindled off. Today I will occasionally still run, especially when the weather is nice, and I love long walks. I’m glad I took to the challenge and tried something new all those years ago, but I wish I had eased into it more than I did. So, if you’re taking on running for the first time, don’t make the mistakes I made, so you can keep running for years to come!
– Brooke
