Hubby and I were born just under two months apart (though, according to our moms, our due dates were the same day–he was early, and I was really really late). We will both be 50 years old this year and, in honor of that, we are working on some goals.
I started running at 40ish; I was going through a divorce and started, stopped, and restarted the Couch to 5K app program to save my sanity. I wasn’t very serious about it, I was really just using it to cope with stress at the lowest cost possible to be fit.
Hubby has been a runner for quite some time. He ran a bit in high school, but didn’t join the cross country team (we really had more of a track team than a cross country team). He joined the Navy and was required to run, of course, but with the birth of his first child, he stopped smoking and started running. He has been running for the better part of a quarter of a century.
My first race as a spectator.
When we started dating in late 2012, he told me about the races he had run, mostly half marathons. I didn’t realize that was a “thing” aside from professional runners, people wanting to win money or go to the Olympics. I was fascinated at the idea of races for the “everyday person” and finally got to see a race in person in February of 2013 when I flew to NOLA to see him run the Rock N’ Roll New Orleans half marathon.
I was hooked, actually, by the entire thing. As much as I enjoyed watching him run, and meeting him at the finish line, I had been missing the thrill of competition, even if it is really only with myself. I was a gymnast from the age of 5 through high school, and aside from some volleyball in college, I had missed the natural high of competition.
My husband (then boyfriend) challenged me: train for the October 2013 half marathon and he will pay for it. That gave me almost 8 months to go from a mostly non-runner, to a half-marathon runner. It seemed so daunting to complete 13.1 miles when I was struggling with 2.5-3 miles! But the fact he paid for it put a lot of (needed) pressure on me.
I ran my first half marathon October 20, 2013. It was my first race, I didn’t run any shorter races in preparation, I wanted to “Go Big or Go Home.”
And, funny enough, my second half marathon was a month later at the Rock N’ Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon.
I’m slow. I will always be slow. I’m not last, but I’m not fast. I won’t win any age group awards like my hubby does, but I consider every finish an accomplishment.
Hubby now has completed 48 half marathons (and many many other race distances, including 6 marathons). His goal is to get to 50 half marathons by age 50 (end of August).
These are the races I have completed:
| 1 | relay half marathon |
| 10 | 5K |
| 1 | 4 Mile |
| 5 | 7K |
| 8 | 10K |
| 1 | 10 Mile |
| 2 | 15 K |
| 13 | Half Marathon |
| 2 | Marathon |
| 43 | Total Races |
I obviously couldn’t meet the same goal as my hubby (he had more than a decade head start), so I’ve set my goal to 50 overall races by age 50. I am at 43 races including today’s 4 mile run. I have two half marathons on the books (with hubby to finish his goal), and I have a 10K and 7K coming up next month, so that leaves 3 more races I need to schedule by late October. I didn’t want to wimp out and only throw in 5Ks to finish up, so I’m looking for a variety of race distances.
Did you set a physical goal for age 50?
~Mama K