Weekly Recap: Fall 2018 Half Marathon Training - Week 1 (9/10-9/16)

A quick note - many people were affected by Hurrican Florence. While Charleston was spared, our neighbors to the north were not. You can learn more about where to donate to hurricane relief here.

LEt the training begin…

BUt first, a Hurricane Evacuation

This past week, in what’s become an unfortunate annual fall tradition, we evacuated from a hurricane. This year it was Hurricane Florence, and this time, instead of going to Charlotte, because of the hurricane’s path we went to Orlando. It seems odd to evacuate to Florida for a hurricane, but Florida actually sat this one out.

The view from our house in Orlando, Florida

Because we have four dogs, we often have to make decisions about leaving very early, and with the information that’s available at that time. It’s hard to find places at the last minute that take pets, especially when several thousand people are also evacuating. So we made our decision when the mandatory evacuations for the South Carolina coast came out.

After several days of nail biting and wondering if that 150-mile margin of error would send Florence Charleston’s way, we realize our city was in the clear. But sadly, Wilmington (where one of my fall races is located), along with many other areas of North Carolina weren’t as lucky. So while we ended up with a fun, impromptu Disney vacation, other people ended up with flooded homes.

I’ve also been discouraged with many social media posts deriding people who prepared for hurricanes, or left during the mandatory evacuations. I’m not exactly sure what’s so bad about being prepared and why that deserves mocking. No one is a match for a deadly hurricane and since Charleston was in the margin of error, we chose to play it safe.

It’s also worth mentioning that not everyone has the option of leaving. And those people who didn’t leave, who happened to be in North Carolina, are also the target of the same type of disparaging posts from the same people who make fun of those who prepare and leave. While my family is fortunate to have the means to leave, as well as job flexibility that allows us to work while away, not everyone has that option. Some people’s socioeconomic factors don’t allow them to just up and leave for an unexpected evacuation. They may have a sick relative they are caring for, they may not have the extra money in their bank account, or they may not be able to leave their job.

All of this to say…I've found general reaction to other people’s reactions to Florence very disheartening and judgmental. No one can control the weather. Charleston got lucky. This time. But being prepared is never a bad thing.

I’m also very aware that I’m lucky to be able to take off for a last minute trip to Orlando and turn it into an impromptu Disney weekend. We hit up Typhoon Lagoon, Animal Kingdom, and Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. A little early for Halloween, but we rarely come to Disney at this time of year and it looked like fun! (I’ll post pictures of all that soon!)

So, about running

As a reminder, I’m running two potential goal races this fall - first the Bohicket Marina Half Marathon in November (10 weeks from now) and next the Wilmington Historic Half in December. Basically, I have two chances this fall since it’s been so long since I’ve raced healthy or had any goals.

I'm also running the Kiawah Half Marathon, but I'm pacing a friend for that, so it's not something I'm really tracking at this point. That one is the week immediately after Wilmington.

My full race schedule is here, in case you're interested (although, some of those shorter distances are subject to change or drop off my schedule, and one from this past weekend was canceled because of the hurricane).

That said, week 1 of my training ended up being…not much. I ran a whopping 6 miles. Because of the evacuation and schedule shifting, I just couldn’t get in all of my runs. It’s not even worth putting a workout summary in this post!

So obviously, this was not exactly the way I planned to kick off my training cycle, but we did get some Disney fun out of the trip.

Going forward in this training cycle, one of the biggest changes is that I'm attempting to run 5 days a week as opposed to 4. I've been pretty steady over my training reboot with 4 runs per week, and now I'd like to up that a little bit. My overall mileage will only increase a little at first, so the length of the individual runs will be a little shorter (for now).

And just a reminder that I posted some vacation pictures (lots of pictures, not a lot of words - quick read). Be sure to check those out:

Recent Snapshots: Outer Banks Vacation
Recent Snapshots: Lancaster, PA Vacation

How was your week? Were you affected by the hurricane? What are you currently training for?