Half-Marathon Recap

The most sporty looking runners before and after the race

Not too long ago I would have never thought that I’d ever run that far. But here I am writing a recap on my first half-marathon last Saturday. You might have noticed that I refer to the event as my first one and I do surely think that this wasn’t my last attempt to cover this particular distance. Anyways, let me take you through the day.

The race took place in a forest by where I live and was scheduled for 3.30 pm, which I thought was a pretty late start. However, since I am always concerned about taking in enough nutrition and fitting in all the necessary bathroom stops before exercising, this was rather convenient. My brother and husband had signed up for the same half-marathon and it was very nice to have company on this big day. My husband and I were going to run together although he usually runs much faster than me. But unfortunately he couldn’t stick to his training schedule and decided to run at a slow pace to be able to cover the whole distance. My brother, on the other hand, had already participated in the race twice and set out to break his PR in this attempt. His goal was to finish in under 1:35 h. I had calculated a finishing time of 2:21 h if everything went according to my plan.

We eventually got to the race venue 1.5 hours before the start and proceeded to get our race numbers and figure out the area. It was a really cold day (we were lucky it didn’t rain) and we stayed dressed in our regular clothes as long as possible before changing into our running gear. All of us lined up twice to use the facilities and then it was 20 minutes to go when we headed to the start. The run course was an out and back loop. It zig-zagged through the forest and circled a lake.

By the time we were standing at the start with the other runners I wasn’t really nervous. I was just ready to get going after the months of preparation. Eventually the cannon went off and my husband and I let the crowd pass by because I was determined to run my own pace and not get distracted by the faster runners. Somehow I hadn’t anticipated every single other runner to be that much faster because after about 5km we didn’t even see the crowd running in front of us anymore. It was as if we were doing a training run all by ourselves. The only signs of this being an actual race were the race volunteers along the way (not many spectators in the woods) and the arrows on the path.

At first I had problems with my heart rate monitor because it picked up my husband’s signal. Although the stupid things are supposed to be blocking the wrong signal, for some reason it displayed the wrong heart rate and for the first couple of miles I was fumbling with my watch and the pick up around my chest. So here we go, me checking the watch, my husband talking to me about him monitoring his heart rate and me watching the split times when all of the sudden we hear a group of people yelling at us from behind. We didn’t pay attention to the course and missed a turn. Because we were literally running by ourselves at that point, it took the race volunteers a little while to realize that we were part of the race when they called us back and steered us back on the course. Yup, we actually ran a half-marathon plus a little bit!

We reached the 7km mark according to our plan and high-fived because we had completed one third of the run. We also started seeing another runner in front of us and it was nice to get the feeling of being part of a race somehow. I felt really strong and good the whole time and was excited to see that we were just a little bit faster than the splits I had calculated beforehand. We were going between 6:30 and 6:45 minutes per km. I was surprised to see that pretty much everybody else was going so much faster than that. But I didn’t feel bad about being so far behind the crowd. I knew I was giving my best and was just happy to be there. We plodded along and by km14, after two thirds, we had passed two more runners. This is also where I started to think that it would be nice to finish this thing sooner or later. I still felt strong, but was looking forward to reaching that finish rather than just focusing on the present moment of the race.

I had two small water bottles and one energy gel with me on my belt and started thinking that I should have taken in more energy before the race around that point as well. The kilometres came and went and around 17km I really could tell that things weren’t going so smooth anymore. By now I was just longing for that finishing line but it wasn’t because of poor preparation or because I wasn’t able to run that long. I had miscalculated my intake of calories that day. I had two bread rolls for breakfast and one banana-oatmeal shake around 1 o’clock. And to be honest, I was kind of hungry right before the race when I saw the spectators eat cake and barbecued stuff at the venue. It was as if a switch had turned and from one kilometre to the next, I simply wanted this to be over. My heart rate went sky high and my breathing didn’t stay within its usual pattern. Talking to my husband after the race, I know he was also ready to be done and I could tell because he was breathing harder. But we only had a little bit left to go and didn’t slow down so much. In fact, we overtook some more runners who probably started off too fast when we decided to stay back. We finished in 2:22:09 h and I think we could have reached my predicted 2:21 if we hadn’t run that little extra stretch in the beginning. We averaged 6:50 minutes per km. Although I didn’t really feel elated and strong at the finish line, I now am proudly looking back at what we did that day. My brother even broke his PR and finished in 1:33:00 h!

This was so much fun over all, in my mind, I am ready to do another race this second! We’ll see what the future has in store but I am sure this wasn’t the last time I did a race and I would want to say that this isn’t going to be the longest distance I will ever cover.

Tri Plans

After focussing on running and the upcoming half marathon for the longest time, I am setting myself up to commence my triathlon training next week. In my case that involves creating excel sheets and mapping one or two things out. First, I created my training plan based on two tri-books I have and some advice I found online. It's a 12 week plan with 5 days of training each week. It does not include specific strength training units but I figured I will fit them in as I see fit (haha). Probably in the evenings after work during the week. Some pre-set training plans don't give you distances you need to complete in training but they tell you how long each session should be, i.e. 70 minutes of biking. I must say that I prefer the style where you get a target distance and an intensity level to go by. This way I make sure that I'll get in 10 km for sure, whereas I might not, if the training plan asked for a 60 minute run.

The other thing I took care of is writing down the gear I would like to purchase for my first triathlon and possibly after. There's some things I know I'll definitely need, like a tri-suit. Others would be extremely nice to have but are not a must (like aero-bars). That's why I came up with list of a few things, figured out what I would be willing to pay for them and prioritized my need for each item. 

Things like this make this whole triathlon endeavor more accessible for me. I know what lies ahead and I can literally cross things off my list when they're done or purchased. Another plus is that I can hang up a sheet of paper on my fridge and don't have to remember everything I will need to do, to get me to that starting line. 

Pre-Race Relaxation

As of today it’s three more days until my first half marathon and I am looking forward to the race with great anticipation. I am not really nervous but excited about what’s to come on Saturday. I realized how cool I am about the big event when I received a message from my brother this morning, telling me to stay calm. All I could think was that there’s no need to worry since I am more excited about the half marathon than anything else. Obviously I have no clue how it’s going to go. I don’t know how I’ll react to the added pressure of the race situation. I could worry about whether I’ll be able to take care of all necessary bathroom stops before or during the run and I could be concerned about not making the cut off- but I don’t. I am curious and confident. And I think that I’ll be able to reach the finish line in a rather decent time. Then again, even if I won’t, I am not going to beat myself up. I have been strictly following the training schedule and I have seen a lot of improvement in my running. That alone is reason enough for me to be satisfied. It also gives me confidence in my triathlon pursuit. I believe that I will be able to finish the olympic distance race come July if I stick with the training plan (which I have printed out today). All is good in Readytotri-land. And I’ll let you know how it went on Saturday. Until then I’ll be hydrating and eating lots of carbs!