Hope you all had a good weekend! I am very satisfied with my performance in the Kalamazoo half-marathon. I ran in 1:29:47, a new PR in this distance! I knew that my shape was good but not good enough to run under 1:30:00.
On Saturday morning, I woke up at 6 am and had coffee, a banana, an English muffin and some Gatorade for breakfast. I then headed to the start of the race. It was breezy and a bit cool, but managed to stay warm until the race started. The fist two miles were downhill. I ran them well under 7 min/mile. I was feeling very good but knew that the most difficult part of that course was the second half so I stayed calm and relaxed. Miles 3,4 and 5 were in Kalamazoo downtown. They are flat as a pancake and I tagged behind two guys who were running at a very good pace. In mile 6, there is a long hill that I ran well. The sixth mile was not as slow as I expected it to be and that gave me some confidence. I focused on maintaining a good running form without worrying about the pace. My quads felt a bit tight after the hill and I didn’t want to push excessively. Miles 7 and 8 were easy, I knew I had enough gas to put the hammer down from mile 9 onwards and that’s precisely what I did. To be honest, I didn’t really know I was running in a sub 1:30 pace! Mile 10 and 11 are relatively flat and I picked my pace up a bit. My legs were fine and I was not feeling very tired. Miles 12 and 13 have a couple of hills that could make you suffer at this stage of the race. Rather than slowing down, I attacked them. Finishing races off has historically been one of my shortcomings and am working hard to overcome it. I knew that I had a shot of running under 1:30 and I went for it! Two years ago I would had slowed down. When you slow down, you don’t feel fulfilled at the end… I know that feeling very well and I don’t want to experience it anymore. I am training really hard and I need to show that when am racing. When I crossed the 13 mile marker, I knew I was going to run under 1:30 and I ran as hard as I could. The last 1/10 of a mile felt very good because I dreamed with running under 1:30 for a long time and I was very close to demolish that barrier. I crossed the finish line in 1:29:47, my fastest half-marathon ever!
During the race, I asked myself several times: Do you remember when you used to run in the back of the pack? Do you prefer the back or the front? If you prefer running in the front, then keep pushing! This is a big step but it is not the final one. I am going to continue working as hard as possible to run a Boston qualifying time in Traverse City. My result this past Saturday is a big boost to my morale and am feeling better than ever. My legs are a bit sore after the effort and I will try to recover them ASAP. The first two days of this week will be easy and after evaluating my runs I will decide the other workouts.
No comments:
Post a Comment