I haven’t written anything running related since a couple of weeks after my ankle/heel surgery in November of 2021. Between the pandemic, injuries, and then surgery, I wasn’t able to train consistently for a long time and I didn’t have the opportunity to become a part of the running community in Denver, where I moved in July of 2020. For quite a while, I was feeling frustrated with and discouraged by running, and I felt disconnected from the sport and the community.
The expectations I had for my recovery and return in running post-op weren’t met and getting back to a place of consistent running, let alone hard training, took much longer and was more painful and difficult than I anticipated. I had hoped that by the fall of 2022 I would be starting to race again, but in reality I was just beginning to run 4-5 days per week and didn’t run my first double digit long run until October 2022. While that was exciting and I’ve celebrated the milestones along the way, I was also frustrated at the glacial pace of progress and I had a lot of doubts about my racing future. The more time that passed after surgery, the more I questioned whether or not I would be able to get back to hard training and racing again. I spent a lot of runs last summer and fall thinking that setting big scary goals and running PRs were things of my past.
Sometime during the winter though, I finally started to turn a corner. In late December/early January, I was able to consistently run weekly long runs of 10-12 miles and slowly but surely “easy” runs actually started feeling easy! Around this time I began attending a weekly run club and made my first new running friend in Denver. I got back to listening to Ali on the Run religiously and reading my Fast Women newsletter, things I’d pulled away from while feeling so disconnected from the sport, and started to feel like my running self again.
In early spring, managed to start some light speed work and officially raced for the first time in over 3 years at the Eugene half marathon in April. Training for and racing the half was huge for me. Although I ran almost 7 minutes slower than my personal best, I ran fast enough to believe that with dedication, my big scary goal of breaking 3 hours in the marathon was still intact. I started to consider fall marathons and was debating between CIM and Houston when Lift Run Perform announced their fall training groups, including a “Project Breaking 3” group for CIM. I decided to take a risk and apply, despite feeling uncertain if I was ready.
So here I am, one week into a 20-week training block focused on attempting to break-3 at CIM this December. I’m thrilled to be working with the LRP team and to be training (virtually) with a strong group of women as we all attempt to reach this shared goal. Historically, I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself and it’s terrifying that this goal is out in the world for others to see, but I’m trying to look at it as an opportunity rather than a test. I’ve been through a lot these past few years and I don’t think anyone would blame me if I went out and ran a marathon for fun or threw time goals out the window altogether, but that’s not what I want. I’ve always found excitement in pushing myself and testing the limits of what I’m capable of and after so much time without that, I’m feeling more motivated than ever. It’s been a long time since I’ve run long runs over two hours or held marathon pace for miles in a workout and that’s nerve wracking, but it’s pretty thrilling too. I haven’t run a marathon in 4 years and I haven’t run a marathon PR in 5. It feels a bit crazy that I’m going all in on this goal in my first marathon in so long, but I also feel like I have absolutely nothing to lose by trying. I have a lot of work to do, but I think I’m ready for the challenge and I look forward to sharing the journey with whoever cares to follow along!
Alexis Fairbanks 