So, for those who may follow the blog (not many) will know that I was training for a half marathon and also a sub 50min 10k. I’m happy to say I have completed the half marathon distance just last week. I have not completed the sub 50min 10k as of yet, but this is a work in progress over the next couple of months.
I successfully ran it in2hours, 12 minutes and three seconds. I know, not exactly ground breaking speed, but my goal here was to simply run the distance and not obsess over the time too much.
I did the run on a cool Saturday morning along my local canal. I had done long runs previously with my furthest being 19km. I never thought that just an additional 2.1km would be so difficult. I mean, by the end of it my legs were burning and I actually felt dizzy. It started well and I kept my pace above 6min per km for nearly the entire session. I knew it was going to get tough so I just concentrated on maintaining a slow pace and ease my way through it.
By 10km I was building up a bit of a sweat and the phycological barrier of knowing that I was not even half way through was playing on my mind. I changed the music to try and rezone my thoughts and hope that a few km would just fly past before I broke out of my trance. This did not really happen however, as I had a turning point in a nearby town. I mean a literal turning point where I physically turn my body the opposite direction and start running back. I’m not sure I like this type of track, and I think I prefer loops or even just one direction that loops me back to my starting point.
Although I had run long distances before I mostly feel it was phycological battles in my head I was having trouble with. I just could not enjoy the run, and even started to imagine pains and injuries. Work was playing on my mind also as I battled through it, and I wasn’t even enjoying the music. In hindsight I’m sorry I did not choose a nice podcast to listen to.
There is a lot to be said for events or running in groups or races. Sometimes you need other people to just get you through these hard sessions.
By kilometre 20 I was constantly looking at the watch. My calves were on fire and I just could not wait to stop. My pace was a crawling 7km per minute at this stage and I was struggling like I had just started running for the first time ever again.
Overall, I am pleased with my accomplishment and I actually look forward to doing it again in a couple of weeks. More rest on the build up and hopefully a better week at work will combine to provide better results. I am not aiming to do it much quicker, but I definitely want to do it more gracefully in the last two km. I will be happy with that achievement and will post it afterwards to let you all know 🙂