Life Changes at 13.1 Miles

Eight months ago I embarked upon a journey that I thought would end at a single 5K race. A single race of 3.1 miles, and about nine weeks of training to get to that point. By the end of December I had completed eight 5K races and began to wonder if I could one day run a 10K or even, gasp, a half-marathon. While I was not necessarily determined to run a half-marathon anytime in the near future, I found an enticing one on April 24th. I began training in the end of January, early February and realized along the way that most of the battle was mental. Physically, I could do it, mentally, completely unsure. Last weekend, I decided to run a half-marathon relay with my friend Kate, just to get some distance in before an attempt at a half-marathon. I ended up running the 7.1 mile portion of the race and while it was slow going, I completed the race and Kate and I had a half-marathon time of 2 hours 32 minutes.

Enter this weekend. Rainy Saturday, ankle issues and a plethora of doubts. And the weekend of the half-marathon. 13.1 miles of running. Doubts plagued me up until mile 6, where I decided to take the half-marathon route as opposed to the 10K route. Doubts then again plagued me at mile 7 when my feet, soaked by the rain, began to blister and hurt. Doubts plagued me at mile 8, mile 9, mile 10, mile 11, mile 12 and mile 13. The doubt left as I crossed the finish line in 2 hours 58 minutes. A slow 13:34 mile pace, but I finished. I, Molly Refsland, finished a half-marathon. My dad was there to see me finish and I would not have wanted it any other way.

I am thinking of running another half in August and a 10 miler in October. I am now, what I consider to be, a runner. A slow, "caboose," but I am a runner. And running has changed my life. It has made me confident, stronger and healthier. It has made me realize that running can be fun, it can be challenging and it can altogether suck, but I cannot stop running. At this point, I will say a full marathon is probably not in my future, but we'll see. Someday :)