Hey Fit Chick in the City readers! My name is Brittany and I’m a longtime fan of Jess’s blog. In November I’ll be running my first marathon and I’m so excited to have Jess as my running coach.
Let me give you a little background on how I got started running. Two years ago a coworker asked me to run a 4-mile race. I didn’t know anything about running or racing, but figured why not. For a few weeks leading up to the race, we would run after work until eventually I could run 4 miles without stopping. I wish I could say it was love at first race, but I was relieved to be done with “training”.
It actually wasn’t until 6 months later, when one of my best friends moved to NYC, that I caught the running bug. She’s been running for years, and encouraged me to stick with it and be consistent. As I started getting faster, I wanted to sign up for more and more races (gotta love those PRs). I realized I wasn’t far off from completing NYRR’s 9+1 NYCM qualifying program, so I went ahead and finished it.
In December 2012 I entered the lottery for the NYC Half and was lucky enough to get accepted! I was overwhelmed with all the training plans out there and I had a goal of breaking 2:00, so I decided to work with Jess on my half training plan. I’m not going to lie, I don’t do winter well, so training for my first half from January to March was pretty tough. I managed to strain my groin and also got really sick 2 days before the race, but Jess was always there to answer my questions! I ended up finishing in 2:00:11.
Check back regularly to read about Brittany’s training adventures as she gets ready to conquer her first 26.2 on November 3rd.
Good luck with your training Brittany! You’re in excellent hands 🙂
Yes, yes I am! Such a relief!
Congrats on meeting your half goal!!! I love reading about new runners – it’s so motivating and interesting to hear about your perspective. I’ve run several marathons and NYC is definitely on my “to do” list. In the meantime I will live (run) vicariously through you until you reach that goal in Nov. Good luck!
Thank you Allie! I’m definitely trying to take it all in knowing this one will always be my “first” marathon!
That’s great! Good for you meeting half your goal and good luck with your trainning too.
Thank you Lang!
Wow! That’s great Britanny. I’m sure you’re going to love it. BTW, I’m also a long time fan of Jess’s blog. She’s my inspiration! 🙂
Thank you, I’m so excited! Jess is always a great inspiration and I hope to get fast like her some day 🙂