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.