My Second Half Marathon and Marathon Month at Orange Theory

This month… has completely exhausted me. I have known since January that I was going to run my second half marathon at the end of April, but what I hadn’t planned on then was that I would also be running a total of 26.2 miles this month at Orange Theory. I thought this month would be easy and carefree… but ugh was I wrong. Here’s how this month went:

Orange Theory Marathon Month: So I signed up because my friend Autumn did and I wanted to actually participate in one of the challenges that Orange Theory puts on every month (think of Hell Week and Mayhem). I also figured it would help push me to get some short runs while I was training for my half marathon and that it would be easy. I was so wrong. I had to go from doing 2 classes a week to at least 4 a week and upgraded my status to unlimited classes. At the beginning of this month, my base pace was a solid 5 mph, my push was a 6.5mph and my all out was a 8mph. By the end of the month, I got my base up to a solid 5.5mph (sometimes a 6mph), my push to between a 7mph to 7.5mph and my all out was a 9mph (I even got a PR of 9.2mph!) It was definitely a struggle on some days to maintain those speeds. The whole point of all of those numbers is that I really increased my speeds in order to get the miles I needed to reach 26.2 by the end of the month. This was also a little challenging because I normally do 3G classes in the morning, where I only get 14 minutes on the treadmill, as opposed to Orange 60 classes where you get around 23 minutes on the treadmill. By week 2 of April I was going to OT at least 4 times a week, usually in the morning. So by the time I completed my last 2.1 miles on Monday, I was absolutely exhausted. But that could also be because my half marathon was on Saturday.

OCMD Island to Island Half Marathon: I am literally so proud of myself. I almost started crying at the finish line (but I had to shut it down because I already couldn’t breathe). In the past when I ran long distances, I would stop to walk at some point just to catch my breathe. But this time, I didn’t stop to walk once. WOAH.

Last year my time for my first half marathon was 2 hours and 38 minutes. My goal for this year was to get under 2 hours and 30 minutes. My time this year was 2 hours and 21 minutes! My average pace was 10 minutes and 36 seconds per mile. I’ve never been that fast in my life so I really don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was the fact that I wanted to keep up with Allison. Maybe it was the fact that Taylor Swift just released a new song and it was basically the only thing I listened to the entire time (GO STREAM ME! ON SPOTIFY OR APPLE MUSIC!) Whatever it was, I really surprised myself. This race felt so much easier than last year. There was definitely improvement.

Overall, I cannot believe my pace for this half marathon. I thought for sure I would slow down or have to walk but I didn’t and I’m super proud of myself. This is the best time I’ve ever gotten and the longest I’ve ever run (apparently I ran more than 13.1???) so yeah this was a really good race. I really think Marathon Month at Orange Theory helped me push myself and get used to the idea of being super uncomfortable while running. I feel like I might be in the best shape of my life right now, so I want to keep up with running and going to 3-4 OT classes a week…but the truth is I’m exhausted and my body was so flipping sore after my half marathon. I think I’m still recovering. So maybe May is my month to calm down and take more of a break. I wasn’t sure I was going to have a theme for April like I have other months (see NFF and MM), but turns out this month was all about running and I really crushed some goals. So go Kim! You never know what you are capable of until you do it!

Here are more pic’s from my race!