This is my journey to my first half-marathon race.
Technically I did a half Marathon before, in 2020. However, I did it on my own, using my watch GPS, on a flat path, without specific training. I completed it in 2:04:15. The end was very painful for the legs. In March this year, I decided to register for an official half Marathon and do it properly. My target was to run it in about 2 hours. I kind-of-reached my goal today, at the Munich half Marathon.
Training
I started reading and learning about training at the beginning of the year. Before that, I was making all the beginner’s mistakes (running too fast, very low volume, no interval training). So in February I decided to:
- increase my monthly volume by 20 km each month
- follow a plan
- if the plan doesn’t include as much km as planned, add some slow jogs
I started with the plan 10 km in 50 mins - in 6 weeks. After that, I didn’t do any race (I expect I was able to run 10k in 52 minutes). After a few weeks without any program, I followed the plan 2 hrs for a half-marathon - in 8 weeks. The most intense trainings were:
- “3 x 3 km set pace” (with warm up/cool down, that was a total of 15.5 km in 1:35)
- “8 x 1km set pace” (with warm up/cool down, that was a total of 16.5 km in 1:46)
- 2-hour long run (18.5 km)
In September, during an interval training, I started getting a pain in the knee. I stopped immediately and rested the next day. No other problem to report, although I decided to replace the remaining interval training sessions (that have high speed for less than a minute).
I didn’t run in the 6 days before the race. I planned to do a short jog, but canceled it as I was traveling.
Nutrition
The race had catering stations at the kilometer points KM 6 / KM 11 / KM 14 and KM 17.5 (bananas & isotonic drinks). It also had water stations at KM 3.5 / KM 8.5 and KM 11.5. I used many of them, but skipped some water stations.
On top of that, I decided to carry 0.5 L of isotonic drink, and 3 energy gels with me. I used everything and I’m glad I brought my own bottle.
Race
It was 20°C and cloudy. A pleasant weather.
My strategy was to follow the sub 2-hour pacers, with a possibility of going faster in the 2nd half if I was feeling well. That didn’t really work: it was getting tough after the 15th kilometer and I was distanced by the pacers.
At that point, I checked my time and I noticed it was better than expected and I was still on track for a sub-2h. It seems that the pacers were a bit too fast for me, and I could have been a bit slower during the first half.
Heart Rate
My resting heart rate is around 43 BPM. The max heart rate I’ve seen during training was 181, but I didn’t do proper testing.
During the race, the heart rate reached 185 by the 5th kilometer. I tried to be careful not to push too hard. It increased again and reached 190 at kilometer 15. There have been some peaks at 195 which scared me (I didn’t know that was possible for me) and I decided to walk a bit.
One hour after the end of the race, my heart rate was still at 120 bpm, which I found very high (and the Garmin watch showed an “abnormal hr alert”.
Conclusion
I’m very happy with the result. My estimation 6 months ago was that I may be able to run the half Marathon in about 2 hours. So I consider my challenge as successful.
My training drastically changed this year. For comparison, I ran 170 km in 2021 and 400 km in 2022. I found it quite pleasant to slow down (zone 2 training), but it also takes a lot of time in the week. I don’t know yet if I’ll have the courage to train for a full Marathon (if I do, I won’t have a target time).