The story of my second Blue Ridge Marathon will have to wait. Perhaps forever, because I am completely content not running any marathon again for a while. I’ve even said it out loud:
This also really isn’t a story about my sixth Blue Ridge Marathon – the third on this version of a very intense course of Mill Mountain and the Peakwood neighborhood in Roanoke.
This is more so a story about embracing the moment and make sure that I pause at each important moment with running, both good AND bad. I’ve been doing that a lot since I nearly quit on running last summer even if I don’t blog about it. It might not even seem like it sometimes.
For example, last month’s Shamrock Half Marathon brought out several of the usual cliche comments about what I should be appreciating. I think we (the collective running community “we”) need to stop doing this. Surely I’ve done it in the past and catch myself doing it still, but it’s not intentional. It’s no help to tell someone they should be happy about something if they had other goals.
It is very possible to simultaneously feel things both good and bad. It’s OK to not be OK. And it’s OK to be, well, OK. Which brings to me to this past weekend at the Blue Ridge Half Marathon.
I cannot even begin to explain how disappointed I am that I couldn’t get over some hurdles physically and mentally to get back to the starting line for the full marathon. But realizing that I couldn’t get to where I wanted and then admitting to that was a huge relief.
I took a disappointment and turned it into a celebration. If I can’t run the full like I wanted, or really get back into the half marathon shape I wanted, why not have some fun with it?
My sister Heather and I did just that. (Tap here for my Instagram highlights.) Several years ago at one of the Runner’s World Festival events, I joined in a group to take pics at every mile, so I used that experience to do that this past weekend.
We pretty much hopped on the idea to stick close together to Peakwood and then see what happens. Well, after that climb and descent, we kept staying together through mile 12. I had saved some energy to take off in the final mile, somehow, which gave me a nice little confidence boost.
Throughout the race, we also grabbed a JELL-O shot between miles 4 and 5, took in some snacks at the top of Peakwood, and cursed (literally) at some of the tough moments in the second half of the course.
This experience – coupled with us taking some time to visit family on Friday and Saturday – surely puts this event as one of my top 5 race experiences. That’s a list I need to work on sometime.
While this was amazing, it also helps put into perspective that I still have a lot of work to do to reach some goals that I have. For this particular course of the Blue Ridge Half, I’ve never been at what I consider peak fitness. I truly believe that I can do that to go for a course record next year.
That work and those moments will stay on my mind, while I simultaneously continue to embrace the thrill of this past weekend.
Real David H. 
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