So this year’s racing season is winding down and it’s been a bunch of fun. I’m happy that I’ve come through it relatively unscathed and with some good lessons and things to keep in mind for the coming years. Having finally run a full marathon, I’m happy to say that it was way more of a positive experience than a negative one. I didn’t come at all close to my goal time due to IT band issues around the 30k mark but my first half marathon had the same issue on the opposite side and I’ve never had an issue with it since. Hopefully with a bit more strength training and a stricter training schedule I’ll be able to do another and meet my goal. I’m hopeful that I can do it and will continue to work hard training through winter to carry on a little bit of the momentum I’ve built up to this point. Although my running schedule has gone down considerably since the marathon. I took about two weeks off from running after and a full week of doing pretty much nothing right after and once I finally got back to doing things again it felt great.

One thing’s for sure, the combination of strength training along with a running schedule produces much better results for me than just different types of running. I can see a lot of what I did helped but probably needed a more regular schedule of lifting along with running since my core is still very weak and always pretty much has been. It’ll be interesting to see what a strong core feels like and how it helps with everything else as much as it’s supposed to.

I’ve got one last race this year, maybe two if I do the Roselle turkey trot again, but after that it’s off season until next year. I’ve got two halfs booked for next year, at which one or both I hope to get a PR under 2 hours. With the experience gained from previous racing seasons I think I know what to work on and how to go about it. Should be fun.