Back in February, I signed up for the 2023 Richmond Marathon this coming November. I put down my expected finish time as 3:15, but I was really hoping to break 3:15 and run closer to 3:10 for a sizable PR.  

But as I trained for Boston 2023, logging the miles and pushing hard in my workouts, I started to feel the slightest hint of marathon training burnout. 

And that scared me a little bit. 

Though I’d been a reliable gym rat and treadmill runner for years, I started getting more into running in 2013 to cope with job-related burnout. I was about a decade into my career in local journalism and the work felt more tedious and thankless with every passing year. At that time, I was covering county politics, a beat I’d never aspired to, and fielding emails and texts and calls from editors and sources at what felt like all hours of the day and night. It probably would have been stressful for someone who was a political junkie, so imagine what it was like for someone who didn’t loooove politics. Oh, and I made less than $35,000 per year. I could barely scrape up the registration fee for the 2013 Annapolis 10 Mile Run, but I did (let’s be real, I probably put it on my credit card). And this gave me something to focus on, and a goal to chase, outside of work.

I eventually left that job for another journalism job, which came with its own set of challenges, though I was happy to no longer be covering politics. In 2017, I finally made a much-needed career change, but my new gig wasn’t all roses and sunshine, either. It was OK for a few years, but 2020 almost broke me. Seriously, I don’t know what I would have done had I not had running to distract me that year! 

In early 2021, I landed my current job and it has been such a blessing. I like the work, I’m paid fairly, I work normal hours – no expectation that I be available all the time – and my leaders like and respect me. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that my running really took off over the last 2 years, either. (While I have used running to cope with work stress, said stress can still have a negative impact on running.) 

The last thing I want to happen is to start to feel burned out on an activity that’s been a true source of joy and sanity over the last 10 years. I truly love marathons and plan to run many more, but I’ve been going hard over the last 8 months or so. I trained my butt off for Chicago last October, then I ran Philly in November, then I ran Algonquin 50K in February, then Boston in April. That’s a lot of marathon and ultramarathon training! When I started to think about training for a sub-3:15 marathon in Richmond, I wasn’t feeling excited. But the idea of focusing on the half marathon distance and really crushing it – THAT lights me up. 

So I officially dropped down to the Richmond Half Marathon and I put my expected finish time down as 1:29:30. But I’ll be happy with a 1:29:59. My big hairy audacious goal is to break 90 minutes in the half marathon! 

I set my PR last December in Rehoboth, running a 1:33:19, meaning I have less than 4 minutes to take off. But when you are in your 40s and have been running as long as I have, that’s actually harder than it sounds. Still, hard is not impossible. I already found a training plan from who else, Pfitzinger, and I plan to start following that in August. I’m also signed up for the Rehoboth Half in December again, so if I miss my goal in Richmond, I’ll have another shot a few weeks later.

It seems like it wasn’t that long ago that I was determined to break 1:40 in the half. I can’t wait to see what’s next!