Grandma's: Alexandra's Experience
Alexandra couldn’t help but compare her experience to her Hartford Marathon experience in 2018. She compared the traveling, the training group, the stakes at hand, the starting line camaraderie, the work-life balance, and the result.
Traveling: more.
Training Group: cooler.
Stakes: higher.
Starting Line Camaraderie: more friendly amongst strangers.
Work-Life Balance: harder to maintain.
Result: mixed feelings.
One of Alexandra’s biggest takeaways from this experience is fully understanding how much an effort like this takes. The amount of time and effort it took this time around was different. It was much more than her training cycle for Hartford in 2018, but it was enjoyable with this crew. Alexandra’s last marathon took place in the first month of her graduate degree program. She was working full time and her part-time to commitment to her degree blossomed for a month before race day in 2018. This time around, work remained full time and her part time pursuit of her degree was fully ramped and running. This race wasn’t the time she wanted, but she knows one thing:
She’s not done.
Alexandra says that she still has the bug and burning desire to drive to run fast. However, this work-life balance may be more of a factor. She says that she may need to factor in school and work a little better to see when a race makes the most sense for her. Onward and upward!