By popular demand: My wife reports on her 1st half marathon

I suppose I better get on with this one before I forget what it feels like!!

Sunday, 29th November, I got up at 4am and had a rather bad night of sleep actually… and got ready for the half marathon.

It is one that has quite a flat course and I thought, for the first half marathon, why kill myself over the hills! Let’s go for an easy one. Although in the back of my mind, I did wonder… what if I never beat the PR ever after th first one – because it is supposed to be an easier one?

Anyways, off we went, picked up the race pack on the day, got ready.
I usually have to have toilet break, and I was hoping not needing one on the day, so I literately went to the toilet so many times that morning… 6+ I think, must have been 4-5 times at home and another 2 times there!!

In the end, I still had to run in for a super quick toilet break so I could focus on the run and stop worrying about needing the toilet break!!

It took me over the first 30 mins or so before I was more warmed up and that is also the time we had all the uphill bits. Well 1 hill as expected, till we got up to the top and ran around on a field… I was like, what? you mean there is more hills?! Well more like a small steep uphill footpath that most people ended up just walking up it – due to the slope or the traffic jam!

First 5km was slower than the training run but still keeping good pace. I really did not want to not finish because I’ve gone too fast in the beginning!

Then it pretty much was just a lot of running and listening to my Buddhism lessons on the MP3 player. Music just doesn’t cut it for me. There’s also the looking for the hubby who was running along (not race) with me.

As we got closer and closer to the turning back point, the last 10km (6.25 miles) or so, I started running faster and faster. I normally run faster in the 2nd half as I know, 1) I’m over half way; 2) the faster I run now, the faster I get home/finish!
There was a little bit of hill before getting to the turning back point, I was surprised that I kept on my faster pace and ran up and back. I think I’ve lost the hubby somewhere along the line. Eventually he was too far behind, I didn’t want to stop and wait. So I pushed on even faster.

I remember seeing the back of the people who was on their way back when I ran towards the turning back point. I started passing more and more of them.

At one point, I slowed down a little, after checking the watch thinking, I can’t make it under 2 hours!! Until I saw the next distance marker… 20km when I was expecting to see the 19km one! Then I thought, wooo 5:xx minutes left to 2 hours, can I make it? So I sprint the last kilometre and went for it… thinking, well even if I don’t make 2 hours, I can still make 2 hour 1 min or 2 or 3!!

I ran as fast as I could but just not fast enough to make it under 2 hours!! Although it was quite a good feeling to be able to sprint in the end and passing people who were ahead of me!!

The final time was 2 hours 35 seconds on my watch (pretty much just excluded the toilet break and included all the 5+ water break I had!)

I probably could have made it just under 2 hours if I had not stopped for the last 2 water breaks. Those 2 I stopped and stood there to finish the water and I really needed them!

Here’s the official race result:
http://results.nz.eventdirector.net/View.asp?EventID=3818&Bib=2159

Net time: 2 hour 1 min 35 seconds (the super fast 1 min toilet break)
Gun time: 2 hour 2 min 23 seconds (took almost a minute to get through the start line!)

So I’d say that’s not a bad result. I’ve ran faster than I had ever done for this distance!
Although thinking back, I could probably run faster, because I was ready for another run 2-3 days after the event!

Overall, pretty enjoyable race, probably because it felt more like a leisure training run till the last few kilometres.

It was actually the first time I enjoyed the long run during the run itself!
In the beginning, I was aiming for a 2:30-2:45 finish, as more training runs went pass, I know 2:15 is not an unrealistic goal. Secretly hoping to get it under 2 hours (or beat the hubby’s 1:51 record) but under 2 hours just seems impossible with all the calculations and comparison stats with training run!

So having the final time came so close and if I had bothered to not count the water break, I probably could have done it.

So, I’m very happy with the result.

Might consider do another one some day!

Oh and almost forgot, the best thing was…. I left the hubby behind for almost 5 mins!! (Although I think it was more because he didn’t really try running faster, rather than I’m faster than him!) But still, I came first

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