by Natalie on June 10, 2011
Racing locally, in my opinion is one of the best ways to race. You can sleep in your own bed, you know the tricks to getting around traffic and good parking, you likely know the route of the race and there is the general pride that comes with seeing athletes ready to run in your hometown. This year, the Zooma Half Marathon & 10k was scheduled to be in Annapolis on June 5. I love the half marathon distance and I love running in Annapolis. But this would be my third weekend in a row of racing and to be honest, the Zooma registration cost is a little steep for my purse strings so I wasn’t sure if I’d sign up to run. But then, an email came out from the Annapolis Triathlon Club calling for volunteer pacers for the Zooma Half. Sold!
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by Natalie on March 17, 2010
When I first started doing running races, I raced to participate, to experience the race, and that was about it. Let me first say that there is absolutely nothing wrong in racing with that mindset. My perception of racing started to change as I learned more about running, form, training techniques and drills, and my own potential. My perception of races also started to change the first time I adopted a real training plan which was for my first half marathon in October 2008.
I distinctly recall that race being the first time I set a hard goal that I hoped to achieve. For that run my goal was to finish under two hours, which I just barely did. That race pretty much set the tone for how I’ve been running, training, and racing which is goal-oriented. [click to continue…]
