There is nothing more humbling than a half marathon. I feel like every week during our Badass Lady Gang coaching calls, I remind my athletes how hard running a half marathon is. We LOVE to forget. If you’ve done it before, you conveniently remember that finish line high. If you’ve never done it, you’re probably peeing your pants. And rightly so! It’s so hard! REWARDING AS HELL! YES! But super hard!

The last organized half marathon I ran was in the Spring of 2019.

And that face right there is probably all you need to know. It hurt.

It was hard.

We didn’t die and we managed to have some fun along the way.

BUT, over 2 years has passed since I last ran a race.

And I like many of you am in a very different place today than I was years ago. The pandemic, though horrible, really gave me the time I needed to work on my relationship with restrictive diets and overexercising. I got to redefine why I run and rediscover why I love (to hate) it.

It was a gift.

And a few weeks ago, I had an athlete on the BALG training team reach out to me to help her get ready for the Philly Half. And I looked at the calendar and thought, “Hey! That’s like 8 weeks away. I want to run that too.”

Totally forgetting that those following 8 weeks were in the midst of Fall marathon season. I was traveling all over the place, exhausted, and spread too thin. So basically, the perfect time to train for a half marathon!

I decided to share my training every week on Instagram and TikTok which was really fun. A really nice break from the storytelling I’d been doing with BQ or Bust because it was all over the place. Much more relatable if I’m being honest.

And I had a lot of fun! I really loved my training. Even though it was stressful AF.

But two weeks before the race was the New York City Marathon and I was on my feet for 15 hours. The following Monday, I noticed a pain in my heel. Super small. But it was there. I went for a run on Tuesday and immediately thought, “Oh God. This feels like plantars fasciitis.”

I took the rest of the week off of running and wasn’t in pain walking around Thursday or Friday so I decided to run the race.

GANG. I know it’s hard to pull the plug on a race when you’re injured. TRUST ME. I know.

I’m sure this is going to come as a surprise to absolutely no one, but I ran the race, and oh boy was I in pain the second half.

About two miles in, I started having shooting pain in my heel every now and then. But it wasn’t terrible.

What was terrible was my stomach! It was honestly just one of those days. I thought I was going to poop my pants until mile 8 ish.

When I say we took the local during the Philly Half, we took the local. We took our sweet time and luckily, I had the world’s best teammate with me. If you’ve done one of the Badass Lady Gang training experiences the last year and a half, you’ve probably met Leslie.

She’s gifted us our favorite phrase, “The cookies are in the oven” which is a perfect replacement for “the hay is in the barn”. Meaning- you’ve done the training. Now, you wait and enjoy.

I have to say, Philly was such a treat to get to spend time with so many badass women from the team and our Badass Lady Gang Philly Chapter. It really is so rewarding to get to see the friendships translate offline. I love our community. Each and every one of you makes it as strong, inclusive, and fun as it is.

And even though the race was a painful shit show (pun intended) it was an ABSOLUTE BLAST. It was the race I’ve been waiting for (although I could have done without the second and third porta-potty stops). Here’s what it taught me:

Reminder #1: Running a Half Marathon is HARD

Duh. DUH. DUHHHHHHHHHH. It doesn’t matter if you’re running your first or thousandth half marathon, running or fun or running your tits off, half marathons are hard for everyone. See also:

An Open Letter On Behalf Of All Half Marathoners

Running A Half Marathon As Told By Emojis

Reminder #2: Running is a lot more fun when you have a community

Want to know what rocks when a race is running 40 minutes late and it’s freezing out? Having friends to wait with. Knowing that there a bunch of our BALG-ers were running and setting up a meeting spot pre-race doesn’t just keep your pre-race nerves at bay, it makes waiting FUN. Then, running the race itself, it was so nice to have someone with me when shit hit the fan (literally). Leslie and I joked, danced, talked, and took silly photos the ENTIRE race. We knew EXACTLY where our BALG cheer station was going to be and we just kept thinking, “Just get to mile 7”. Then after we finished and warmed up, we went to cheer and hang out with the gang at the finish line because that’s just what we do. We want to be together. It’s the best.

Reminder #3: Friendsgiving is ALWAYS a good idea

Philly THROWS A PARTY during their marathon weekend. Saturday is the 8K and Half Marathon and Sunday is the marathon. SO, our Badass Lady Gang Philly chapter threw a Friendsgiving since we had so many Philly BALG-ers and BALG-ers coming from out of town. I will never, ever take getting together in a room full of friends for granted again. It felt INCREDIBLE to get to be together like this. I love our BALG chapters and team. Getting to see the friendships translate outside of running really is the best part about the BALG.

Reminder #4: A giant Baguette makes cheering even more fun

When I got to our second marathon cheer zone, one of our team members Lindsay told me she had a gift for me. LITERALLY, I was speechless.

Literally speechless. But it ended up being the best cheering prop. I loaf my baguette.

Reminder #5: i am eternally grateful for the badass lady gang

I started the Badass Lady Gang because I was getting so many emails from women who were struggling to find people to run and move with. So seeing women from all over the country driving and flying to support each other and run with each other is a dream come true. We’re stronger together. Running is more fun when we’re together. I am so grateful for all the friends the BALG has brought into my life.

Even if Philly was a particularly tough day, it was pretty damn fun. And that is what running is all about.

I can’t wait to race more with my BALG in 2022.

Love,