The sun is shining and the temperatures are starting to rise here on Long Island. The nicer weather might be getting you excited for sprawling out on the beach, but this spring, use the combination of warm air and a cool breeze to get you motivated for something other than tanning on a towel. Instead, start getting ready for those beach days by training for your first road race!
One of the beauties about living on Long Island, at least for most of the months out of the year, is the wide array of local road races to choose from. The best part about these races is you do not have to be a veteran runner to participate. In fact, the majority of the people ready to hit the pavement (or grass) in these races are amateur runners who just want to get out and have an excuse to work up a sweat – just like you!
Another incentive to get out and run a race is that most of them sponsor a good cause. Take for example, Katy’s Courage 5K that benefits a scholarship fund, or the Healing Heart 5K where proceeds go to the American Heart Association. Of course, some of the local races are purely for fun, like the obvious April Fool’s 6 Mile Race taking place just down the road from campus at Eisenhower Park.
In fact, Eisenhower Park hosts most of the races happening every month on Long Island, which makes these ones an obvious choice for Hofstra students. If you do not have a car or a ride to get to the race, it is easy enough to use the approximately two mile jog to the park as a warm-up to the main event.
Training for a 5K is nothing like training for a marathon and in most cases, this is a good thing. Not many students have time to juggle school and work and all the other extra activities they take on, and train for a 26.2 mile race. This can by all means be a future goal, but like a lot of things, in running you should start small.
Everyone is different when it comes to training, so it might be best to try out one plan and see how you feel on your first race. There is always another race waiting for you if you are not as successful as you would like to be in your first one. A manageable goal to start out with is just to be able to finish. In order to accomplish this, the only training you need is to run as much as you can, as many times as you can, and for however long you are able to go. There are no set rules or number of miles, just do what makes your body feel good. Once you get that first runner’s high, chances are, you will want to keep experiencing it.
The accomplishment you feel after completing your first race will be overwhelmingly great, and hopefully enjoyable enough for you to keep on shooting for faster times and longer distances.The main goal is to always make yourself feel good, no matter what place you come in. For a full list of all the local races around Long Island, including the Eisenhower Park races, check out this race calendar at LIRunning.com and good luck!