The Sunday Morning Run I Have Never Forgotten

Greetings, 

Twenty years ago, this month I ran my first half marathon (13.1 miles) in Lake Tahoe for my birthday. The race back then was called “The Sunday Morning Run You Will Never Forget”, and I have not forgotten it. With every race I have run over the past twenty years, this one always crosses my mind. Why?

The answer to the question of why I still remember that race is that it was the first, it had mountains to run up and down, and was held in a place I had never been before. I lived in Orlando at the time and of course, there are no mountains. I had no idea if I could run that far and going up and down mountains throughout the race. I did not place in my age group, but I did not care. I had completed a half marathon!

In late June of this year, while running in the very early hours of the morning as I do each morning, it dawned on me it had been twenty years since I ran that race. So, that day I decided to do it again. Now I must admit, I will never run as fast as I did then, but to complete a half will still make me extremely happy! I am still running 3.5 miles five days a week and now with my training efforts, I am up to 10.5 miles. So, what is three more?

I am very excited and invigorated by the thought of running a half again after all these years. I smile every time I think about it or mention it to someone. I have told my friends and they first looked at me with the look of “WHAT” on their faces, and then wished me luck.

I called the director of the Lake Tahoe race to tell him of my plans. He is still the same director that was there when I ran the race. He was taken back by my call and seemed genuinely pleased to hear from someone who ran in one of the early years of the race. Today there are many options to race over three days and he has added the same races in Maui. Maybe I will consider running in Maui in the next few years.

So, on the early hours of the morning of Friday October 15^th I will set out to do it again. I will tell you all about the experience in my November blog.

Until then,

Nyda