A Half Insane Decision...The Half Marathon

I decided to run a half marathon in the fall a few months ago. After not playing team sports of any kind for half a year, I decided I needed some sort of athletic goal...hence, the half marathon. I will be the first to admit that I'm not a "runner" runner but I've dabbled in running since starting med school, largely because it seems like EVERYONE in medicine runs. On top of that, my rotations in the months preceding the half marathon were somewhat conducive to following a training schedule (i.e. no surgical or internal medicine rotations).

I went to the gym on Sunday to do my long run since it was ridiculously humid outside and I really did not want to put myself through that, having already had a disastrous experience with humidity and long runs a few weeks ago. 12 kilometers later, I was still alive (sweaty but alive) and I was doing a slow walk on the treadmill to cool down. There was a guy on the treadmill next to me also doing a long run and as I got my breath back, he asked if I was running the marathon (there was a poster for the marathon conveniently located in front of my treadmill). He asked what my goal for the half was and he said that if I ran at the pace that I was running at, I would definitely break my goal. It was a funny moment because I don't see myself as a runner and he was talking to me like I was a serious runner. Serious soccer/field hockey player, yes, but runner? This might take some getting used it.