Last Monday (labor day) I completed my first half marathon. A total of 13.1 miles made this run the longest of my life so far. I had minimal training, doing a 7.6 mile run one week earlier, and a session of half mile sprints a few days later. Other than that, I had done a little running a few weeks back, but nothing that even came close to the 13.1 mile mark.
The surprise for me wasn't that I finished, but how fast I was able to run! The 7.6 mile training run was done at a 11:30 minute/mile pace, and the half marathon I completed at a 10:43 pace (including hills!) My total time for the race was 2:20:25.
Following my mom's advice, I started slow and tried to just settle in to a comfortable pace for the long haul. She said it's better to let people pass in the beginning, and then start passing people later in the race. At the 5 mile mark I was surprised to be running under a 10 minute mile. I felt great, not tired at all, and from that point on I didn't let anyone pass me. On the contrary, I must have passed a dozen or more people before the race finished. (There were less than 200 people running the half-marathon so they were pretty sparsely distributed on the course).
At the last mile, I crashed. I felt so hungry and had to start walking. I think I could've finished 5 minutes faster if I had gotten some more calories at the rest stops. When I finished, I drank 2 sodas, a Gatorade and a bottle of water. I ate a ton of potato chips, brownies, m&ms, and some organic berries and cottage cheese (from home.) Basically, I pigged out. I learned my lesson for next time. Although, now I have my sights set on a full marathon ...2013, perhaps?
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