Leaving Your Comfort Zone — Half Marathon Race Day Summary
First of all, I am so happy that I was able to complete my first 45-day half-marathon challenge. I was documenting my progress day in and out. This was about a regular guy that has work and family obligations and still finds time to plan an escape from his comfort zone.
You can read the whole 45-day article here:
In the meantime let me tell you how the day went.
It was a night race so I had the whole day to “relax” before I commit to struggle. My first stop was to pick up the starter kit that included my jersey, some candy bar, coupons and promo stuff as well as my bib number.
Hours before the race
The race started at 8:30PM, however my daughter was scheduled to run at 7:30PM. It was a 200m kid’s race, which was the highlight of my day to be honest, seeing her run along me is priceless.
Race Details
And finally I want to tell you about my race. I will write another article with 45 tips for any runner to keep in mind but want to share a few now.
My plan (#1)
It was all about running slower until I hit my threshold which is at 10th kilometer and then try to pick up the pace.
Reality (#1)
I started last so I thought I could gain some mental advantage in passing the slower runners in the first several kilometers and that was a good thing. The thing that wasn’t good is the one where I kept going slightly faster until the 10th kilometer which drained my glycogen levels without me even noticing.
My plan (#2)
I took a few dates with me thinking I can refuel after 10 kilometers.
Reality (#2)
That proved being a terrible idea because it is much more difficult to digest a date when you are running and when your mouth are dry. I then remembered that I used 2 packs of gels when I set my personal best and I will never do this mistake ever again. So if you are going to run a distance, have a gel near you.
My plan (#3)
This one kind of relates to the second one, but I am not sure what I was thinking about the following. So my longest distance during training was 17km. I never crossed the 21km, but I felt really strong after 17th kilometer that I thought I wouldn’t have issues running until the end.
Reality (#3)
When I came up with that plan, I was running on a treadmill. That beautiful machine that creates the perfect conditions for your body so all you need to do is to bounce up and down on it. In reality we had many slopes on the course that threw me off a bit. I was trying to keep my pace which required more energy, hence drained me sooner. The following advice is; If you want to run a faster race, make sure you include distances that are longer than 21km during your training, and also train hill running as well.
In the spirit of keeping this article short and interesting, I will end it here.
My final time was 1h 58m, which is 7 minutes off from my secondary goal. However, I am happy that I gave my best and really felt the meaning of these words because I remember distinct steps I ran when I couldn’t go any faster, and I still pushed myself do an extra inch with each swing.
I have done better than I could, and that makes me happy.
I left my comfort zone, and it genuinely felt amazing.
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