I gave up running half marathons two years ago because of the difficulty I was having. I had taken a course in ChiRunning, but I had not practiced my focuses and probably got injured. I have continued to run shorter races and have done alright. After taking Danny’s intermediate seminar and following his half marathon training program, I decided to try once more before I turn 70 in 3 months. I picked a challenging course – the Applefest Half Marathon in New Hampshire. The course advertised killer hills. The course had many steep downhills and the last four miles are uphill with steep grades. The course had to be completed in under three hours or runners were subject to be picked up by bus. It rained throughout the race.
I tried to take it easy and prevent injury. Still, I managed to beat my prior half marathon time by 43 minutes and win an age award. I felt I was running as well as I ever have in my life even though I didn’t beat my best time record, which I ran on a flat course. Only two of the 1200 persons that signed up for the course were older than me. I used all of the Chi advanced techniques for running the hills and felt great at the end of the race. I came in strong and felt I could continue to run. I did a 7 mile fun run today and signed up for two more half marathons before the end of the year.
