I ran two half marathons this Spring. Before 2016, I had run a total of three half marathons. Now I have five under my belt. I have to be careful, or before I know it, someone will slap a “13.1” sticker to my car and start calling me a runner. Luckily I’ll still only be a hack runner, so no fear of being labeled anything too serious.

It had been four years since my last half marathon. A lot has happened in the last four years, including the world-crashing-around-me-and-trips-to-several-different-types-of-doctors kind of crashing down. Despite it all, I did keep running. Not well, mind you. But my legs definitely moved in a forward direction, one in front of the other at a slogging pace, while I was decked out in ridiculous “running gear”. I think that qualifies as running. Some 5k’s, a marathon relay, and two overnight relay races. A lot more slow runs through my neighborhood. But no races where I had to run more than 9 miles all at once. 

I kind of forgot that 13.1 miles is a lot longer than 9 or 10 miles. Training up to 10 was not horrible. But reaching 10 miles and then realizing there are 3.1 more miles to go? That’s when both your mind and body jointly revolt against your best wishes.

My first 2016 half marathon was in April. You know April. Normally 40 degrees and rainy. That April. But this wasn’t the April I knew. This was the random 80 degree and sunny April. Not my April. Not my training in the cold April. Someone else’s April. 

Here’s the thing about running: Running makes you hot. Especially when it is hot outside. And here’s the thing about my nervous system, at least since my nervous system decided to renegotiate its contract with my body and come up with its long list of demands: It doesn’t like the heat. Strange, weird things start happening in the heat. As if my nervous system wants to make it crystal clear who is calling the shots.

So a warm April day may seem like a fun anomaly to other people, but it smelled like trouble to me. Filled me with anxiety. Which apparently is also on the list of contract terms that my nervous system would like to avoid. More strange, wierd things happening there. Nonetheless, I went into the race determined to hold a medium pace and get to the end. And that worked. Until mile 10. When that nagging, tingling feeling in my left leg turned into a nagging, tingling feeling down the entire left side of my body. And then squeezing in my rib cage. 

But I wasn’t in real trouble until the tingling hit my right leg. I was hot. It felt like I was running through a pool filled with jello. I wasn’t sure footed anymore. And things were going downhill. Except that I was running uphill.

I had to walk. Then jog. Then walk. And so on. Until I saw the finish line and pushed myself to jog the last stretch. Finish time: 2 hours 1 minute. 

It was my fastest half marathon and a new PR. But a disappointing finish because I knew I could have done better. Sure enough, my body returned to normal once I fully hydrated and cooled off. No pain, no injuries. The training was not the problem. I breached the new contract with my nervous system, and it went on strike. Although it felt like a riot. Frustrating.

My second 2016 half marathon was a much bigger event, with larger crowds and pools of runners. And a forecast for a warm, sunny May Day. Having hit the heat wall once already, I began thinking of cooling strategies. Hydration. Clothing. Accessories. I thought through it all.

I also committed myself to sticking to a very do-able pace, throughout the race. Making sure I didn’t burn out my body’s reserves  on top of whatever the heat might bring. Making sure if I wanted to push through some fatigue at the end, that my body would actually have enough left in the tank to respond.

The race went largely as planned. But if I’m honest, it probably had a lot to do with the cloud cover that came in halfway through, the cool breeze that picked up, and the air temperature that never got near that 80 degree mark. You know, all of the things outside of my control. Extremely welcome. But not of my doing. Finish time: 1:59:02. New PR and my first time getting under the two hour mark. A much better feeling than that other race.

Yeah, things still got a little tingly, and yeah, there was some squeezing in the rib cage in the second race. But it felt a little more like “been here, done that”. Nothing that slowed me too much and certainly nothing that made me stop. Which just left me thinking about where I should run my third half marathon of 2016.