Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've last written but I am excited to share this blog post with you now. Last Sunday, October 9th, I ran my second marathon! However, let's rewind a bit in time. I decided I wanted to run another earlier this year. At first, I was thinking of doing a small marathon in Wisconsin which would have been in early July. I started training in late February/early March while we were living in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Training was very difficult in Monteverde due to it being a small mountain town with limited roads suited for running and unlimited hills. After a few weeks of training, I decided a later race this year would be best. It worked out well when we accepted job offers in Budapest. I began looking at Fall 2022 marathons in Europe. Once I saw Budapest had its very own marathon- I was sold.
I officially started training for the Budapest marathon in June. My training consisted of a 17 week plan with about 1 long run a week, 3 training runs a week, and 2 days of cross-training each week. When training for a marathon, it can really start to take over your life and that's exactly what I was experiencing. I was able to keep up with my plan during the summer months but once we first moved to Budapest, I struggled greatly. The weather was extremely hot and humid and I was exhausted from being in a new country and working everyday. I have also gotten sick several times since moving here which did not help. I did what I could over the last couple months but I was starting to get a little nervous as race day grew closer.
Much to my delight, Dan decided to train for and run the Budapest Marathon too! This was his second marathon as well. We headed out last Saturday afternoon to the race center to pick up our bibs and race shirts.
The half marathon and other distances took place on Saturday so the race center was very busy! It was fun walking around and visiting some of the different businesses. Hervis, a sporting goods company, was having a great sale so I took advantage and bought a couple running shirts. I ended up wearing one on race day. The rest of the day was very productive. We got our last run in, lots of stretching and yoga, and a pasta dinner.
I woke up around 5:30 am on race day and was so excited! However, I was feeling a little sick. Over the previous few days I was experiencing cold like symptoms but knew that nothing would stop me from running this race I trained months for. We ate breakfast and Dan and I left for the race.
We had a little over an hour before race start so we walked around the different tents and businesses again and took part in the group stretching.
The race was set to start at 9am so we made our way to the starting line after using the bathrooms one last time. The excitement and energy from all the marathon runners was contagious! There were over 7,000 runners so it was pretty tight.
The race went incredibly well and it honestly went by really fast! I felt really strong the entire time and although there were plenty of moments I was hurting, I'm really happy with how it went. Sickness wise, I didn't feel much during the run which I'm so grateful for. Dan and I ran the entire race together. It was so nice having each other to talk to and motivate one another. I ended up getting my PR in the half marathon which I was really happy about. Overall, we finished strong and celebrated at the end by taking pictures and refueling after 26.2 miles.
We slowly made it back to our apartment and ordered in some food. I fell asleep very early that night- probably around 6pm after a FaceTime call with my family. I woke up the next morning (Monday) feeling intensely sore which was to be expected but very sick with a terrible cough and a lot of congestion. I barely had a voice which was soon to be lost after the full day of school ahead of me with parent teacher conferences after school from 4-6pm.
I came home Monday evening, ate dinner, and again, went straight to bed. After a rough night's sleep, I made a doctor's appointment Tuesday morning and called in sick to work. This was my first time visiting our doctor here and it couldn't have been a better experience. We have insurance through work and FirstMed are our primary care givers.
They were very kind and really took the time to make sure I was okay. The good news is that I was COVID negative but still very sick. The doctor explained that I shouldn't go back to work until Monday of the following week so I needed to take the next 3-4 days to use as bed rest. I was prescribed a good amount of medicine for my symptoms which I've been taking the last few days. I am also very fortunate to have kind understanding employers who have been really great during my sick leave. I figured running a marathon while sick would do this to me but again, I wasn't going to let anything stop me from running my race. I'm happy to say I'm improving and doing better everyday. I'm hoping to be 100% before I return to school next week. I'm very grateful to Dan who has been taking care of me this week. Thank you so much to everyone for your kind words about the marathon! I am so grateful to have a body that allows me to run!
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