Skip to main content

My WHY

With everything you do in life, you need a WHY!

WHY do you get up everyday and go to work? WHY do you diet? WHY do you go to bed early or stay out a little to late?

My WHY has a few layers to it...

First and foremost, running gives me a stronger connection with my mom. My mom Barbara passed away 11 years ago from cancer. When I started running 6 years ago it was through an organization named Team in Training (TNT). TNT is the endurance training program through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) and although my mom had a different form of cancer, LLS researches treatments that can help all cancers. 2 of my 3 previous marathons have been with TNT and that was usually all the motivation I needed. My first season with TNT our training shirts had a saying on the back, "if you think training for a marathon is tough, try chemotherapy". That always put things into perspective to me. No matter how hot, or tired, or achy I felt, I was still able to get up and run and that is something I needed to be grateful for.

When I was deciding on a charity for NYC, something that fundraised for cancer research was the natural choice. Every little bit helps and I feel like I am doing my little part to find a cure for the "C word" that has taken too much from too many people.

My second WHY is to check a MAJOR item off my bucket list. After each of my marathons, I have said "this is my last one" and I even remember saying after marathon #3 "running 26.2 miles is totally unnecessary".

I still believe running 26.2 miles is totally unnecessary but in the back of my head when I would say those things I also thought, the NYC marathon would be amazing!!!  My friend Evan, that I met in my first TNT season, has run NYC a few times and the way he describes the feeling of coming into Manhattan during the race has always been something I wanted to experience. It is so crazy for me to think that 6 years ago I had never run a full mile (seriously, I am recovering couch potato...I even convinced my P.E. teacher in high school I couldn't run and she put me on the walking program) and this November I will be running the NYC Marathon.

My final WHY is ME! I am a very goal-oriented person and I want to prove to myself that I can meet the time goal I have set in my head and wrote on my bathroom mirror the day I signed up.  I have had the same time goal (sub 6:00) in every marathon that I have been a part of and came close last time; I think I was 6:07 in my last marathon. Even though each race has been meaningful and I accomplished other goals along the way, I haven't been able to break that 6 hour mark. People say it's not about the time, it's about finishing. And although I believe that, I have finished races before. I now want to focus on the time. I have a plan to make sure I go into the race the strongest I have been; both mentally and physically. I am putting in the work over the next 19 weeks and I know this goal is in reach!

Kacie's Fundraising Page

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mid-Weeks

Although long weekend runs are what everyone envisions when thinking about training for a marathon, mid-week runs are something I have always struggled with. Waking up at 5:30 AM on a Saturday for a run by the ocean is a lot easier, at least for me than getting in 3 miles twice a week after working all day and doing your normal routine. That being said, the mid-weeks runs, especially in these early weeks are probably more important as this is where I will be building my cardio and just getting my body used to running again. Running is a use it or  lose it sport and since I haven't run consistently in a few years, I am back to square one with building my endurance. In addition to working on cardio, mid-week runs is a place to work on interval training to help with speed. As I mentioned, historically I have struggled with these mid-weeks but since I am, you know, running a marathon in a few months,  I needed to find a way to get these in. World of Beer has a ru...
Post a Comment
Read more

Race Weekend - Part 2

Race Day!!! My day started at 5:30 AM with the plan to leave the hotel by 6:50 AM. My start time wasn’t until 11:00 AM so I thought we had plenty of time to get to the start line. Well, it took forever to get to the start line but it was all part of the experience I wanted. We left the hotel at 6:50 AM and walked less than a block to the subway. We took the R Train to the Staten Island Ferry. By the time we got to the ferry depot, we waited about 30 minutes before we got on. The amount of people waiting to get on the ferry was insane.     Once we got on the ferry, we took the about 30-minute ride to Staten Island. Then we needed to head with the thousands of other runners to the buses. This was the longest part of the morning. We were literally moving a couple of feet at a time and then waited. From the time we got off the ferry until we got on the bus was well over an hour. Then we took the 20-minute bus ride to the villages and corals. We finally got to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Race Weekend - Part 1

Well, I did it! I ran the NYC Marathon and officially checked my dream race off my bucket list. It was an unreal experience that truly exceeded all my expectations. Since I am still on a high from the whole weekend, I thought getting my thoughts on paper would be the best way to capture the experience. Friday, November 3 rd , Eliana, Nicole and I flew to NYC, checked into our hotel and headed to the race expo at Javitz Center. The race expo is the place where you pick up your running bib, get your finishers shirt and purchase any other swag you want from the race. Heading into race weekend my excitement level had been pretty low compared to previous races and I couldn’t figure out why but walking into the convention is where the excitement really kicked in. To be surrounded by thousands of runners who all have to the same goal never gets old. The energy in that rooms cannot be replicated. After we left the convention center, we walked across the street and Eliana noticed...
Post a Comment
Read more