I did it…half marathon complete

I finished my first long-distance race today. I ran the White Rock Half Marathon in a respectable time of 2:20:47. It was a great experience and I think I’ll do it again someday. The race capped off a stellar year for me: finished my Masters in May, had my first baby in May, turned 30 in November, and ran the half marathon today (Dec 14).

I trained about as well as I could have. I think in my next training I won’t push myself so hard in my pace, but train steady and follow a training calculator verbatim. I ran faster than my suggested times in almost all of my runs. I think that might have slowed me down a little since I was fairly tired at the end. Another thing I’ll do different is to bring my own water bottle to keep with me while I run. The aid stations were great and all, but there were a few times that I really wanted something to drink but the next aid station wasn’t for a while.

The last thing I’ll do differently is I’ll exchange my shoes when my instincts tell me to. I bought an expensive pair back in October and they gave me a terrible blister. I went back to the store to exchange them, but the salesman gave me some pointers on how to prevent it from happening again. I should have just gotten a different pair, because I got a few more blisters during my training and a pretty bad one at the race today.

Other than that, it was a great experience overall. I really feel like I pushed myself to do this and I was able to rise to the challenge. If you’ve never ran a long-distance race I’d encourage you to give it a try.

After all, you have 365 days to train for next year’s White Rock Marathon or Half Marathon.

2 thoughts on “I did it…half marathon complete

  1. Congrats on finishing bro! This is some great advice. A marathon runner friend keeps telling me to always run with a water bottle. Sounds like I need to do this!

    • I thought that the aid stations for my race would've been close enough together, but there were more than a few times that I was really wishing I had water with me. If Austin's setup anything like Dallas was the aid volunteers will be pouring the drinks into cups with pitchers, so they should be able to fill your bottle. That's my guess at least.

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