First Half Marathon

Nearly one week ago, I ran my first half marathon and completed it within my goal range of just under 2 hours. Well, 1:59:24 to be exact. According to a race calculator based on my 8K time from a few weeks earlier, my HM time should have been 1:56:00. To be fair to myself, the 8K was on an entirely flat surface and the weather was cooler, so sure pacing 8:20min/mile sounds like a breeze. However, to admit my own faults, I definitely did not do enough long runs before the HM. I only completed one run over 10 miles before the race (maybe 11ish miles max), so I wasn't familiar running the whole distance. For the first half of the HM I was pacing (8:40min/mile), now that impresses me!, but also means that I lost a whole lot of steam particularly in the last three miles. So, at least I have something specific to work on for future races.

The transformation I have made in terms of fitness, strength, and speed over the past year plus continually surprises me. In January 2011, Chris and I bought new running shoes. I could hardly manage through 20 minutes at say a 12min/mile pace. Then Chris got a road bike, mentioned he always wanted to do triathlons, and long story short we signed up for a tri club with a "newbie program" to gear up for an international distance triathlon. So from February through June we swam, went to spin class, and ran for at least an hour once a week. Then we added an extra 25 mile bike ride outside, plus a long run and an extra swim here or there, and bricks (bike + run to simulate the tri). Finishing the triathlon in June was really quite an accomplishment. It honestly was a struggle every step of the way, but I felt an immense sense of accomplishment upon finishing. And of course, there's always that question of: what's next?

In this case, the what's next was another international distance triathlon in September 2011. However, for good or bad, the swim portion was canceled due to a big storm and the weather looking particularly nasty. My bike and run times both improved quite a bit, but I was kind of sad there was no swim to directly compare overall improvement from the previous tri. Either before or after this tri I started losing weight. At first I wasn't really trying, just exercising more and watching what I ate a little bit dropped about 10 pounds.

Anyway, so as fall started to set in and graduate school was edging towards its final days for me, I began running. First twice a week, then three times, then four and onward. In December, I was ready for a new challenge and wanted this year's tri season to be about improving in "at least one" of the three sports. So, I set out putting 75% of my effort towards running and laid off the other two a little bit.

I signed up for the March 17, 2012 Rock N Roll Half Marathon in DC and began a "training program" in January. I put it in quotes because I really only loosely followed this program and mostly did what I want. Somehow with running more often, doing hill repeats, and running with people who are much faster than me, I managed to get to a much faster pace. It seems like it was all of a sudden, but looking back on it, this faster pace was really months if not a full year in the making. I also had to get past the mental barrier of realizing I could move much faster than I usually did on runs. Once I broke past this blockade, it was a whole new frontier with running and gaining speed.

Now that I've reached my goal of a half marathon in under two hours, I want more. I'm left yet again with the feeling of "what's next?" I know to keep up this level of fitness, strength, and speed I need to continually challenge myself more than ever before. Whatever races are on the horizon, I know intervals (ewww) and much longer runs will be on my horizon. For now, the immediate what's next is the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler on April 1st, but we'll have to see what new challenge I come up with for the months ahead...