What’s Next After My Half Marathon?

Hey Y’all! Welcome back to Falling In Love With Fitness! I am so excited for my new blog post! Today, I will be talking about what is next for me after completing my half-marathon!

I still cannot believe I am less than a month away from running my first half-marathon. It truly does not feel real. Two years ago, I would have laughed in your face if you told me I would be willingly running 13.1 miles. And I would be even more shocked to know I am actually having fun. When I first started my 80-pound weight loss journey in 2024, I didn’t expect to change as much as I did. I knew I would see a difference in my appearance but I never thought I would have fallen in love with fitness (pun intended). 

Before Race Training

After I lost 80 pounds in 2024, I decided to take some time to maintain what I had accomplished and relax a little bit in the gym. Now don’t get it twisted, I was still working out but it was purely for fun. I did this for about 2 months before I broke my foot in March. This injury was really hard for me. Not because I thought I was going to gain all of the weight back, but I truly loved being active, and I couldn’t do that anymore. I was stuck on the couch for 6 weeks, and I was missing the gym so badly. My workouts were my stress relief, and let’s just say that semester I really needed to relieve some stress. Once I was out of that boot, I was right back to my normal routine, in the gym, being active, and loving every minute.

It was now summer, and I was honestly bored out of my mind. I was carving a goal or a way to challenge myself physically. So I decided that I was going to attempt the 75 Hard Challenge. In the summer of 2024, I did a version of 75 Soft to help me on my weight loss journey. After some involuntary time off, I was confident that I could do it, and I did! It was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I wasn’t doing it to lose more weight; I was doing it to test my discipline and consistency. Now I did lose a little bit of weight during this challenge, but I gained confidence in my athletic abilities. And that confidence is what made me sign up for my first 5k, 10k, and half-marathon.

What’s the Next Goal?

Over the past few years, I have learned some very important life lessons in and outside of the gym. I learned that I enjoy running, I hate yoga, and I absolutely love a challenge. This is true in my professional life and in my personal life. When one door is getting ready to start closing, I have already started opening the next door. I have done this with internships to further my career in the music industry and college organizations to expand my campus involvement. I have gotten so many opportunities and experiences, but I have noticed sometimes I look to the future so much that I am missing what is happening now. 

So many of my friends have been asking me how training is going and if I am excited. I always have an answer to that question, and it’s that training is great and I’m beyond excited. But my biggest problem is answering the question that 9 out of 10 people ask after. What are you going to do next? That question always stops me in my tracks. I honestly have no real plan for after. There are no other races scheduled or challenges I want to do. As of this moment, after I cross that finish line, my only plan is to eat a really good meal and celebrate all of my hard work.

These past few months of training have shown me that I will definitely keep running, but not 3 times a week. I am excited to transition from running for sport to running for pure fun. To prioritize getting ready for my race, I had to take a step back from some of my favorite forms of exercise. So after my race, I am ready to get back into my spin classes and do more low-impact forms of cardio. Even though I’m not diving right into a new challenge, I am excited to take some time for myself and see what I really want to do next. There is no need to rush. I have so much time and life to live. Who knows, maybe this time next year, I will be training for a marathon. Only time will tell!

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