And I ran my first half marathon this Sunday. I ran it in 1h51 but wanted 1h45. It was a nice experience, especially because I had never raced over 10km before.
It was nice morning here. At the start, it was 17C and I placed myself not exactly where I wanted. It was crowded and I lost half a minute over the first km. I planned to run at 5:00/km and could do it up to the 12th km. After that I started to feel a little slow and maintained a 5:15/km over the next 4km.
After 16km, my average pace was near 5:10/km. Then, everything became extremely difficult. The legs didn’t respond and to complicate ever more, a blister on my right foot started to slow me even more. The temperature was higher, not sure how much and the pain from the blister increased a lot. At the 18th I slowed down and walked a little, at the 19th I had to walk again to relieve some of the pain. Then I dragged myself over the last 2km to finish the race. My last 4km were done at 6:00/km on average.
Like I said before. It was a nice experience. I just wanted it to be a little easier in the end. I’m now planning to race a night 8km race on April 30th. It’s exactly a cycle away from today. I’m also considering another half marathon in August. Let’s see…