I'll post my thoughts on my half-marathon race later when I'm less dead.
Rambling below as I'm still tired and impressed with the sheer scope of the event.
Man, official races are weird. While I know it's meant to be fun and enjoyable (and it was), all the months I was training for this, the 6th of August was like a looming deadline, or a exam day - and as the day approached, I grew progressively more nervous. It didn't help that since I started training in earnest in March, the work also got more and more intense and peaked in June/July to the point I was sleeping 5-6 hours a day and my thoughts were either about work, or about the upcoming race.
When this last week rolled in, I knew I probably wouldn't reach my goal—in fact, I was in a far better form ~2 months ago I think. But I thought even if I couldn't do 5:40/km, I could safely do 6:00/km, as that was no problem at all during my training runs. But there was this last week at work, then I travelled on Saturday and ended up tossing and turning all night, too nervous to sleep.
I officially ended up with 6:21/km and 2:13:46.
My race plan was to ease into 5:30-5:40 pace after the first 5km and that went alright, but the sun showed up during the second kilometer and over the next 10k the weather grew progressively hotter and humid as the race route pretty much follows along the biggest river in the city. The 11k-16k was going to be a particularly vicious part and I knew it, but by that point I was losing steam and at ~14.5km my brain went "hey dude, you've been abusing us for the past six months so how about we just walk for a few minutes" and I couldn't find any counter-argument. lol
After that I knew I wasn't getting anywhere near good time so I went extra slow and easy to save face and smile during the last 1-1.5km, and to be honest I'm not sure if I could've went any faster without stopping anyway. I was thrilled to cross the finish line anyway, that feeling alone was worth it.
What was great:
- I've never ran in such crowds before. I think there were at least 6k people participating. The feeling of running in the crowd of people who share that particular hobby with you is amazing.
- There was a lot of support along the route, lots of people cheering us up, putting up funny signs (there was a guy with a sign "run faster, the prosecco is cooling in the fridge" and later there was a guy with a sign "hurry up! the prosecco is getting warm" which gave me a good laugh), lots of kids putting their hands for you to high five (side five? how's it called when the hand is to the side instead of up?). I was tired at the end but I tried to make sure I've got all kids who wanted to side five.
- The volunteers were amazing
- I'd like to believe I've gained some experience from this but that remains to be seen
- The medal is pretty
What wasn't great:
- My performance
- 25°C and humidity
My next (and I think final) race for this season is another half-marathon in my city in two weeks. I don't think I'll be able to improve much in terms of running, but now that I'm on vacation, I'll just try to approach it well-rested, get enough sleep, and start even slower. While my goal to run a 21.1k in less (fewer?) than two hours remains, I think for now I'll settle on running the full distance without walking/stopping. I think I may start even slower and aim for 6:06/km during the first 10k with the pacemakers depending on how I feel. Unfortunately, this race is also in August and it also follows the biggest river in our city.
Still, that was quite something.
Topic: The Official Exercise/Fitness Thread v. Run Forest, Run! (Read 193789 times)
