My half marathon has come and went. I trained, I ran, I finished. Now I am onto the processing stage. I don’t really want to go into the play-by-play of how it all went down, but I will give you some of my insights.
First of all, it was colder on Sunday than on every other day since early spring. The high on Sunday was 50 degrees in Slatington, PA which is the starting point of the half marathon. It was probably 38 degrees while I was running. I didn’t really get cold except before I started running. I do think the cold made my muscles feel more cramped as the run progressed. I don’t know how to train for that aspect in the future but it is something to consider.
My running app told me that the half marathon was over about 1.75 miles before I was actually done running. I do believe that this made me loose steam. In fact, I know that it did. I think as I got towards the end. I was totally done with running.
I sometimes wanted to swear at the mile marker on the trail (and one time I think I did) because I felt like I already reached that mileage about a mile ago. It was infuriating! It is possible that in the future I won’t use a running app while in a timed race. Also, despite what my training book told me, darn you Hal Higdon, I think that I should have run longer than 10 miles at one time previous to race day because according to my running app I ran over 15 miles on the day of my half marathon.
Oh well, there’s a first time for everything.
In the months previous to the race, I told some friends and family that I would be doing this and I encouraged others to join me. I eventually got three other people to sign up. Go me! Don’t I feel like quite the influencer! [Perhaps the The D&L Half Marathon Run should pay me a finder fee to influence people to sign up].
But don”t get too excited, unfortunately, none of fellow runners were able to join me on race day for a variety of reasons. It was fine though, because I trained alone for the most part. I had been texting with some of my aspiring running partners at some points during training about training but we weren’t actively running together. I ran my training runs solely so it makes sense that I would run in this event by myself.
Except, that I wasn’t by myself, I was running with close to 1,000 other people. Sometimes on during the half marathon I would stay with a group of people for several miles or so, then the group might disperse and I would run on my own for a while. Those people, who I had never met before that day, kept me going. I think it is possible I was doing the same thing for them. We were probably helping eachother keep going.
But I also felt stiffed by staying in the pack. I never really experienced anxiety about my running while I was running during training, but during my half marathon it was another story entirely. Around three and half miles in I began to fear that I would quit and won’t be able to finish. Staying with the pack kept me going for a while but I found that I had to break off from the pack to find rhythm in my breathing. I have never hyperventilated before in my life and I didn’t that day. But I started doing my really loud obvious breathing to keep me going. It was like I needed to do really loud breathing to calm myself down.
When I reached mile six, I began to relax because I started to feel like I was halfway into the race and didn’t have to fear quitting or choking. I knew I would finish by that point and it started become a lot more enjoyable for me. I really had a good time during miles 6-11. The scenery was pretty and I was enjoying what I was doing. My feet started to hurt alot by mile 11 and my running app told me I was almost done. Unfortunately, the mile markers on the trail told me I still had about 2 miles to go. I knew by this point that I would not be meeting my goal time so I did a good bit of intermittent walking and running for the last two miles of the run. I don’t really feel bad about it though, I know that next time I just need to make my long runs longer at the end of training.
So yes, I did it! I owe my success in finishing to my supportive husband and children. Thank you friends and family who cheered me on virtually! I think I would like to do it again.
I have some other thoughts that I plan on sharing later in the week. Perhaps, you the reader are not too tired of hearing about my running goals and what it means for my life.
Cheers,
Katie
