Real David H.

Disclaimer: I’m an ambassador of the 2019 Foot Levelers Blue Ride Marathon, but all thoughts are my own. Grab yourself a nice discount at the end of this post.

Forgive me if you’ve heard this before, but I’ve signed up for the Blue Ridge Marathon.

This race kind of just came up as a random thought for me recently, and I’m grateful for my friends at the race to have me back as a blogger. I hope my blogging serves this race well as I’m well aware of my struggles to write consistently.  

And yes, I’ve signed up for this race a few times over the years and never done it, but a couple of years I was derailed by injury and a couple of times I simply failed at training.

So why is 2019 going to be different? Here’s what I’ve come up with so far, with more things likely to come:

• I’ve mostly forgotten how to train for a marathon, so this finally feels new again

• I’m tired of “coming back.” I need to be “back” and feel “back” … and put all my injuries behind me

• I’m 40, and I ran 0 marathons while in the 35-39 age bracket

• this is the 10th year of this race. I’m familiar with the course, I know how dreadful parts of it are, and I just need to suck it up and do it at least once in my life

• I need to do this for me. When I did my first marathon 11 years ago, I felt like I was having to prove myself to others. Subsequent marathons always felt that way too. It’s a weird feeling to have, but I don’t care what others thing any more. I just want to do this because now feels like the right time

• I probably won’t post nearly as much on social media about individual runs. I’ll certainly celebrate milestones and dwell a bit on things gone wrong, but I’m over cliche comments. I hope that whatever I post here or on other sites is meaningful and that we can have real conversations

• My sister is running it!

I’ll add to this list over the next month as training becomes even more of a reality.

On another note, this race in Roanoke, Virginia, (April 13 next year) is truly one of the best events I’ve ever done. Even if you’ve never visited the area, I personally promise that it’ll feel like a hometown race to you.

Oh, and the mountains and hills you get to run are just a small part of a great weekend that I will detail more in future posts.

if you’re on the fence about signing up, hop off it and register now. My code AMBASSADORDAVID20 gets you 20% off the marathon, half or 10k.