After running my first half-marathon in October 2023, I became hooked on running. I wanted to make myself a better runner in everything I did––I bought new shoes, new clothes, a new watch–– all with the goal of running faster in my next race, scheduled for December. I even had a training plan to follow in the 6 weeks between the two races! Now I'm getting serious.

December came, and so did my race. I set out hoping to run under 90 minutes––beating my previous time of 1:34, which I had achieved without a structured training plan, relying mostly on my fitness from playing soccer earlier in the year. This time was different of course.

It's amazing what a taper can do for your body. It's almost like I had a new set of legs that were not fatigued, but still adapted to all my training over the last few weeks. I ran feeling refreshed and ready to set a new PR.

I finished with a time of 1:24:40.

Seeing the results of my hard work over 6 weeks finally pay off was one of the most rewarding experiences I've felt. This is the feeling that has me obsessed with running.

Now, in 2024, I'm setting out to run my first marathon in July with a very ambitious (and scary) goal of running it in 2 hours and 48 minutes.

This is the beginning of that journey.