Since my marathon run last Spring, I have been rather lax in keeping up my running base. I've run a couple of 5Ks and a 10K, and maybe three or four workout runs on my own over the Summer months, so my body at least still knows what running is.
I live in Central Illinois, and while the Summer heat isn't nearly as bad here as in other parts of the country, it's warm enough to dampen my desire to get out and keep hitting the pavement, even for early pre-dawn runs. Add to that the post-marathon blahs resulting from my Spring marathon and I have become a "dull boy" indeed.
To try and force myself to get back into the groove, I signed myself up for a half-marathon coming up in September. I figured I would be motivated into training for the upcoming event, and life would be good again. I am now sitting one month away from the half-marathon and have managed to run a 3-miler and a 5-miler in the past few days. I can feel a little motivation seeping back into my legs, but it has been a struggle just to achieve that much.
I'm confident I can finish the run, but I'm not counting on it being a PR. I'm hoping that my motivation will improve in the next few weeks and that maybe this one accomplishment will help propel me forward into pre-training for my next marathon in Spring 2012.
A thought occurs to me as I write this however, "I seem to at least have a desire to be motivated. That in itself is some motivation, isn't it?" I wonder where this desire comes from. I suppose that deep down I know what I really want. I remember the exhilaration of race day, the pride of achieving personal goals throughout my training, and the serenity of running alone in the peaceful silence of all those early Winter mornings.
As I sit here typing this and remembering those wonderful moments that only a runner could understand, I'm starting to feel that desire to run again; to regain that sense of competition with my own past achievements and the courage to take on tougher challenges. I guess my motivation never really left me; I had just forgotten it was there.
