Kaitlyn is the second of two new guest bloggers who will be writing for 42.2 for the 2016 marathon training season. She will be writing monthly blogs that will be posted on the last Saturday of every month, updating us on where she’s at in her journey from 0 to 42.2. I sat down with Kaitlyn to find out a little more her and her running journey up until now. I can’t wait to see what this season has in store for her. Good luck! 

The first new blogger we introduced was Rachel Crooks, you can read her intro blog here and her first post here. 

Age: 21

Occupation: Energy Management Student in the Haskayne School of Business

Goal Race: Victoria Marathon

What is your running goal this year?

My main goal this year is learning to create a habit of running (and being active), specifically one I can continue as I get older. The majority of our current working population sits in desks throughout their career and usually develop a lot of back and knee problems. I want to do my best to prevent this from happening to me.

Before joining the program how much running had you done in the past?

Before joining the program I was more of a casual runner. I would go for a run if I needed to train for soccer, de-stress or to hang out with my dog. This program is a new experience for me.

I trained for a half marathon in 2013 but reconstructive ankle surgery got in the way before training and the race were complete. The furthest distance I have ever run was 21km.

What made you decide that running a marathon was something you wanted to do?

It has been on my bucket list for a while. My thought process was that if I can complete my first marathon during school, it will be much easier to complete additional races throughout my career, especially if I was familiar with the training and how to balance it with everyday life and stresses.

Also, this might sound silly, but when I was in Grade 7, I told my foods teacher that I was going to run a marathon. She told me that I was not done growing and therefore had to wait till I was 18 years old to prevent injuring myself. I am past 18 and done growing so I felt I had nothing preventing me anymore!

What made you decide to join the University of Calgary marathon training program?

I knew for sure I couldn’t train to do a marathon on my own. I had heard that a lot of people typically came back into the program after completion, so I thought that it would be invaluable to train and learn from those with far more experience than myself. Also, I thought that because it’s at the university, the program would be research based and would be the safest and best way to train. The internet is full of different training plans and opinions – which makes it difficult to decide what the best is.

What are you most excited for this season?

I am excited to meet new people and form new relationships. I hope that once we get up into higher distances and I am in better shape, I won’t feel like I am bagged the whole time.

Overall, I am excited to see myself progress and get better every week. There is a lot of things in life that make it hard to measure progress, but being able to run further and longer is progress right before your eyes.

Is there something you are worried about? What is your biggest fear right now?

To be honest I am quite competitive. So I did notice that on the first longer run that we did, I wanted to stay with the front pack the whole time. I know that once we get into the higher distances I might kill myself that way.

I am also worried about the runs we complete on our own. I find it challenging to keep myself busy during runs to avoid constant clock watching. Running in a group makes time feel so short.