Senior Anna Gibson ran the “York YMCA Half Marathon” on May 5 in York, PA. The race took place in the morning, beginning around 7 a.m., and the weather was “cold and rainy,” according to Gibson. She hasn’t been running for a long time, but she got into it last year and she explains that, “I just randomly started running and I realized that I actually enjoyed it. So, I set running a half marathon as a goal I wanted to achieve.”

      Gibson had a strategy for her training of “setting the mileage I wanted to do for each week, then deciding how much I wanted to do each day to make the mileage add up per week. Over time, I trained more and more to increase my mileage, so I could reach the distance of a 13.1.”

     The course was on the Rail Trail, which was “nice scenery, but the weather made it a bit of a struggle because of how slippery and muddy the trail was.” Gibson states that, “it was super rainy.” The course overall would’ve been “relatively flat, but most of the race was on the trail.” 

     The senior had various strategies to prepare for the race. Before the race, she “ate breakfast, stretched, and warmed up.” She also “listened to an upbeat playlist I have and put it on shuffle, so there weren’t the same songs over and over again. I listened to my music for about two-thirds of the race.” Gibson also had reasoning behind why she chose to run to upbeat music instead of anything else. “I feel like it helps me keep up my speed and keeps me moving,” she explains.

     After the race, Gibson was feeling “really happy, excited and a little tired. I was pretty pleased with my results, and I didn’t really put a lot of pressure on a time for myself since it was the first one I ran.” Gibson wants to “run another half marathon and try to beat my time.” She plans to continue keeping up with her running after the race, and she “typically runs at least three times a week.”

     Gibson encourages others to run races and train for things they want to work hard on. “If anyone were to run a half marathon, I would suggest to them to set small goals first, then work up to the bigger ones. You can do anything you put your mind to.”