First Marathon 26.2

Apr 22 | Written By Kelby Dover

First Marathon 26.2

Today I ran my first marathon. Running 26.2 in a race has been a bucket list moment I’ve nervously anticipated for a long time. I ran it in 3:23:39 (7:44 pace) at the Nashville Rock’n’Roll race which beat my goal of under 3.5 hours. I couldn’t be more proud of myself for the work and training I’ve put in leading up to the start line. Every 4am alarm and the evening dinners pushed to later because I needed to get the miles in were all worth it. I remember and am grateful for every single mile of training.

When I was growing up, hearing that people ran 26.2 miles seemed like an impossible task. Even my dad ran a half marathon and a full marathon while deployed in Afghanistan with the military, so my goal has always been to match his distance. Younger me would look up to me for working so hard. But… younger me would have just thought I was simply a good runner and wouldn’t understand how much this took.

Through the process of training for longer races here in Nashville, I’ve learned to run socially. This kind of running is very much a solo and mental sport, but running clubs have become key for my process and I’m new to the camaraderie. A massive thank you to Jogalope, East Nasty Run Club and The Nations Run Club for being such amazing people and environments. I’ve come to love and depend on running with great folks who like to run in big circles like me. Here’s to the next mile…