Change in plans...

Yesterday, I ran my second half marathon at the Foster Swift Half Marathon in Grand Rapids. I started training for this race back in June, having decided to do it soon after I returned from Washington, D.C.

I did Team in Training again for this race, hoping to raise $5,000 this year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Updated total in 2013 as of today: $5244.44. Holy cow.

While this was a huge accomplishment and I'm so excited to have been able to raise this much, the weekend belonged to others who did their first races - Emma did her first 10K, which I was around for on Saturday morning; Dave did his first half marathon; and Nina, a survivor on the Team in Training team did her first half marathon.

All of these people pushed and went beyond their limits. Talk about inspiring others!

In thinking about pushing my limits, I was fairly certain that in the spring, I would be doing my first full marathon. But since the race yesterday, I've made a decision that I won't quite push that yet in 2014.

You see, I wasn't fully prepared for yesterday. My training hadn't quite gone the way I wanted and I've been sick over the last two weeks. I could feel it in my lungs starting in mile 8 and in mile 9 I started to feel pain in my hip that persisted the remainder of the course. I had a goal of finishing in 2:40 and I missed it (2:49:06) because I had to walk more in the second half.

Needless to say, I'm not particularly happy with my performance. I felt really good in the first 7 miles and felt like my pace would get me to my goal, then it just felt like I fell apart at the end.

So while I have it as an item on my 40 x 40 list, a marathon will not be in the cards for me in 2014. In some ways, I feel like it's a failure on my part, but I have to listen to my body. I think I need to get some more experience at the half level and be happy there before I move to a marathon. Making the jump in a bad place will lead to a poor performance.

I already signed up for the Winter Blast Half Marathon in Portage on March 2. It looks like the rest of the year will bring the Gazelle Girl Half in April, Bayshore Half in May, Lighthouse Half in early October, Mackinac Turtle Half in late October. Probably something else too...

While I'm sad about having to postpone a marathon, I'm looking at the bright side - getting better, bling and fun with my running family. After all, I haven't even been running for two years yet...