Update (!) #TCSNYCMarathon pic.twitter.com/RhCBkez9ct

— Hannah McGoldrick (@byHannahMcG) July 27, 2015

I have some belated news to share… I’m running the New York City Marathon!

I know, I know, I had sworn off running a marathon this fall (this year even) and I was on a #5Krevolution. While I really loved 5K training and was beginning to see some large gains, I still felt like something was missing. Not having a big race on my schedule had me feeling a bit lost and unmotivated with my training. That said, I still wasn’t too excited about the idea of running a marathon so our coach here at Runner’s World, Budd Coates, came up with a two-week 5K training rotation for me. We were in the midst of picking out some fall races when I got an incredible opportunity—the chance to run the New York City Marathon in November.

The minute I read the email, my mind started running and I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of running 26.2 miles through the five boroughs. I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about running New York from coworkers and friends and the experience would be incredible. But I was not looking forward to the training one bit. After what happened in Chicago, I had huge doubts that I could even run a marathon again, let alone the 18, 20, and 22-milers necessary to train. But the allure of the Big Apple began to outweigh my small doubts so I took the leap and registered.

Now I’m five weeks into a 16-week training plan and so far everything is going well. With vacation and weddings filling up the summer I’ve done a bit of maneuvering with my long runs but so far I’ve only missed one easy 3-miler (no big deal). I’m going into this training with a totally different outlook than Chicago. Here’s my plan

1. No time goal. I know New York will be a crowded and congested course so I’m going into it with zero times goals. I don’t want to have a bad experience like I did at Chicago because my goal was slipping away. I also want to truly be able to enjoy running 26.2 miles through the five boroughs because honestly, when will I ever get to do that again?
2. Training with people. My biggest gripe about marathon training in the past was running my long runs solo. Two-to-three hours of running alone can get pretty boring, IMHO. This time around I’ve done a few of my long runs with other people and it is SO MUCH BETTER. The miles fly by and running with others also helps me maintain a more even pace.
3. Have fun! The last marathon I ran was not fun at all. And it was so not fun that I completely forgot to enjoy and take in running through Chicago. That’s not going to happen this time around. I vow to enjoy it, finish feeling not completely dead, and ready to run another marathon (with a time goal).

For now and until November 1 I will stay true to these goals while jammin’ out to some Tay!