So, you want to run a half marathon

"Ah just felt like runnin."

-- Forrest Gump

Why run a half marathon?  I have recently been asking myself that same question.  It was only last year that I took the couch-to-5k challenge offered by EARC.  After too many years from high school track, with sporadic running since, I decided that the time was right.  Through gentle encouragement from friends and support from my family, I finished the program and I finished my first 5k.  What was surprising, is that I didn’t want to stop running.  I searched out other 5ks.  Learned the “fun” of running during the winter months in Ebensburg.  As the warmer weather returned, the running desire returned.  Then my eye caught a glimpse of an advertisement for a half marathon.  Can I do that? “Yes, you can” said a friend.  How? Set a goal and find a training program.

As an university professor and a developmental psychologist, much of my professional time is spent researching and reading.  One article that caught my attention was written by Michael Putman, an assistant professor of elementary education from Ball State University.  Not only is Michael a university professor but he is also a marathon runner.  In this article, he makes an association between the skills of running a marathon and teaching students to enjoy reading.  Both of these activities he asserts rest on the idea of self-efficacy.  This concept was defined by the psychologist Albert Bandura in 1986.  The essence is our personal belief in our abilities.  Bandura makes an important distinction is between our beliefs and our actually abilities.  Our sense of self-efficacy can be either beneficial and detrimental.  If my inner voice is positive, based on past experiences and successes, then I am likely to continue with an activity, even when it becomes challenging.  However, if the voice is negatively oriented, perhaps through obstacles and perceived failures, that can create a negative self-efficacy (i.e., I can’t do that).

Putman suggests some steps to strengthen your sense of self-efficacy.

1. Develop short-and long-term goals.   While my goal is to run a half-marathon, it would be foolhardy to just jump into that event.  My short-term goals should lead me gentle to my desired long-term goal, while providing me with measured opportunities to evaluate my progress.  Achievement of short-term goals also allows for memories of successes to be stored and incorporated into my sense of self.  For me, I am following the Hal Higdon training program.  This 12 week program allows for a gradually increasing routine towards your goal (a half-marathon), very similar to the couch to 5k program.
2. Choices.  We rarely like it when someone tells us to do something.  Although there are times when we must tolerate these demands, it is always better if we believe that we have choices.  While the Higdon’s program sets daily and weekly goals for you to achieve, remember to make them your goals.  The half marathon advertisement that caught my eye, is going to run in Key West, Florida.  That is a win-win situation: first half marathon experience in the tropics in mid-October and a stronger motivator to keep up the training program during the heat and humidity of the summer months.  A quick check of the airline prices called for a modification of plans.  New target race, the Baltimore Running Festival.  Baltimore, Maryland is a city that holds many pleasant memories for me, including meeting my wife. While distance running is not her cup of tea, she plans to run the 5k; a weekend getaway.
3. Feedback.  While I was one of those runners who would plop the earbuds in and play motivational music on my runs, in preparation for the half-marathon where earbuds are strongly discouraged, I have gone natural.  I must admit, it is a different experience.  As I am running the Ghost Town Trail I am more aware of my surroundings and perhaps more importantly, I am more aware of my body and my inner voice.  Higdon’s training program is widely available as an app for smartphones.  His voice replaced my inner voice.  I listened to him measure my distance and time.  In between, my music allowed me to lose myself.  In the absence of this distraction, I have found myself listening to my breathing and my muscles.  While I still use a gps watch to measure my distance and time.  I rely more on that inner voice, my personal cheerleader, who encourages me.  I establish short-term goals on my runs, so that I can feel the thrill of success, which feeds into my sense of self-efficacy.
4. Finishing.  As with my first 5k, my goal was simple: just finish.  I look back and see where I have come from and use my successes to build a running language.  Not simply words, but stories and beliefs that I have incorporated into my sense of self.  I am a runner, expressed in my own unique fashion.

As I mentioned in the beginning, I am a novice to running.  I do not speak as an expert, rather as a fellow runner.  While my weekdays are filled with shorter runs, Saturdays are my long runs.  This past week I ran 5 miles on the Ghost Town Trail, with sight on that end goal of a half marathon in Baltimore, MD in October.  I welcome anyone who would like to join me on my Saturday morning runs at 7:00 am starting at the Ghost Town Trail.  Once again, this coming Saturday, will be a 5 mile run.

Stephen Baker is a novice runner and member of the EARC.  You can follow him on twitter @shb1991 or Facebook.