I ran my first half marathon this past Saturday. Going into it I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I was surprised by the outcome for a few reasons. A little background: After graduating under-grad 1-1/2 years ago I took a six month hiatus from running...It has now been a year since I have been consistent, but this is the first year that I ran through the summer. I have had a very strong spring as far as my pace goes. That being said; in the past year I have not done many runs over 7-8 miles...I tend to get a little bored doing them on my own (yea it happens to everyone). I have been building a lot of base but have not done any proper training (in my opinion) for long distance events.
I was excited about the Brooklyn Half and thought it was a great route (this is prior to running it) and through the insistence of two friends I signed up. At which point I thought "I'm screwed, how am I gonna run 13.1 miles"... I received a lot of advice from my fellow runners and took it all in and knew what I had to do.
My goal was to run a 6:30 mile pace and hit negative splits on the second half of the course. Of course I had no idea how I would be feeling and if my body would hold up. The course was 7 miles in Prospect Park (Hilly) and then the remaining 6.1 miles was down Ocean Dr. to Coney Island (flat, flat, flat). In the end evertything worked out as planned...Mentally and physically I felt great - I was wondering if I could mentally push myself to complete that the distance, and physically if my legs would hold. I finished the race with a 6:29 mile pace (avg.) and a total time of 1:25:00 putting 24th in my age group. My Age Graded Percentage was a little lower than normal at 69%, but that's ok.
For my debut half-marathon I think it was very strong. Overall I am very happy, but deep inside I want another shot at it to prove I can run it faster... If you are wondering about Marathons...I have never run one and I don't plan on it anytime soon...Halfs sound nice as far as my "distance" events go.
I don't have another running race until 6/21 but have a Time Trial (cycling) next week @ Bear Mountain, NY. I have become more disciplined with my training and now I need to become more disciplined in the events I choose to race in. For instance, two weeks ago I ran three races in four days...Way too much "speed" in such a short amount of time. I am definitely going to scale it back a and start focusing more on my long term goal which is The Nations Triathlon. The event is September 13, 2009 and my swimming is poor poor poor. I need to get it up to a similar level of my running & biking. To do that I need to be consistent...I will let you all know how it goes.
I have a feeling I was a little all over the place with this post...feel free to comment and ask any q's...
