On any given morning at 7 a.m., most Northwestern students lie curled beneath a tangle of sheets. Communication sophomore Anna Rhoad, however, spent months of frosty mornings lacing up her running shoes and pulling a T-shirt over her bouncy, brown curls. She then hit the gym or the pavement, whichever her training schedule prescribed for the day, all in preparation for the Chicago Spring Half Marathon.
Rhoad ran track and cross country in high school. “I decided this was the next thing to do,” she says. “And then I made Nathan do it.”
She and Weinberg sophomore Nathan Daly signed up and started training in February for the half marathon, which took place on May 16. Daly also ran in high school, but this was the first race of this magnitude either one of them have undertaken.
Their training regimen involved strengthening with weights, working out on a treadmill or elliptical and, of course, outdoor runs. Six days a week, the two dedicated themselves to the challenge.
Rhoad and Daly aren’t the only Northwestern students who aimed to complete the half marathon. Medill junior Lauren Victory also took part. She got the idea from a friend last year and planned to run then but was unable to fit in the training.
This time, though, she remained dedicated. “The reason for wanting to put myself through the physical hardship of completing a marathon is because I’m young, and I feel like if I don’t do it now, I won’t ever do it,” she pauses. “I kind of want to prove something to myself.”
Weinberg sophomore Hayley MacMillen ran this half marathon for the second time. She knew she could finish. Her challenge this year was to reach the end in two and a half hours. “Thirteen miles is such an awful number, but once you get into it and into the buzz of the crowd and the other runners, it is much more rewarding than painful,” she says.
MacMillen’s training consisted of three to four runs a week of varying lengths. Though she has other friends that run, she preferred to prepare alone.
Rhoad and Daly set out on increasingly long distance runs every Sunday. Though the race is 13.1 miles, the plan wasis to work up to ten the week before. “The schedule says the inspiration will carry you the remaining three miles. Whether or not that’s true, we’ll see,” says Rhoad, her lips widening into a goofy grin.
Victory ran track for part of high school but had never run long distance before. “I’m wondering since I’m doing this all on my own if I’m actually doing it correctly,” she says. “I must be, since I never thought I’d be able to run even seven miles.” She didn’t aim to beat a time. “I’m just trying to finish.” She laughs. “We’ll see if that happens.”
Rhoad and Daly had more specific objectives . “My goal is an hour and forty-five minutes,” Daly says. “My goal is an hour and fifty-nine minutes,” Rhoad respondedds, a trace of uncertainty lacing her otherwise sing-songy voice. “It’s a good mark,” Daly reassures her.
On the day of the race, MacMillen anticipated feeling a confidence charged with bolts of nervous energy. “This is the first year I’ll actually feel like a runner, like I belong there instead of faking my way through it,” she says.
There are plenty of rewards to look forward to on the day of the race: t-shirts, food and the runner’s high. But Daly says it is crossing the finish line that makes the preparation worth it: “The feeling of being done and having accomplished it, that is incomparable.”