Halfway there

Today I ran my first half-marathon. Results should be on the website on Tuesday. I had wanted to do a full marathon this year, but was sick in July and August and missed too much training, so I decided to enter the half. My time was around 1:59, which I was extremely happy with. I slapped the time clock as I ran under it, showing 1:59:59. My actual time was about a minute less than gun time.

My goals were firstly to pace myself properly so I didn’t end up flagging terribly in the second half, and secondly to break 2:06 so I could beat 6min/km. An outside hope was to beat 2hrs. I was wearing my heart-rate monitor, which made it easier to set the right pace, and ran the first half-hour at an average of 140. The second half hour averaged out at 147, and I was feeling great through the half way mark. I was beginning to overtake runners that had passed me during the first half, but had gone out too hard and were now fading. At that point I was still on track for a 2hr finish, so I decided to maintain the pace. The third half hour saw me averaging 161, and I did two splits for the final half hour – an average of 167 for the first 15 minutes, and 178 for the last 15 minutes, which included a good sprint to the finish line – when I turned the last bend and saw the finish line clock reading 1:58:30, I just had to go for it. It was great to do a negative split – 57min vs 1:02.

The legs feel OK, but the knees are pretty sore. I definitely need to lose the last 20kg before I do the full marathon. Roll on 2006!