I think all 3.2 readers of my blog already know it, but I ran a 1/2 marathon at the beginning of this month! I ran the 2015 Red Rock Canyon 1/2 marathon.
There are three amazing things (for me) about this:
- I completed it. This was my only goal, w00t!
- I overcame the profound doubt I’d ever be able to run longer than my longest training run (12mi).
- Out of all my runs in my 10 weeks of training, my race was my fastest run of all (6.15mi/hr).
Though I thought #3 meant I raced fast, but it could have meant I trained especially slow ;) Here’s the data my phone spat out when I was done:
As I was starting to train 10 weeks before the 1/2 marathon, I looked for, and found, a training regimen that was 10 weeks long. In case it’s of use, I used Marathon Rookie’s 1/2 marathon plan. I strongly suspect that the reason I did so well in the actual race is that every run I tried to have the first half be all up hill and the second half be all down. Red Rock’s profile is ~6 miles up for ~1000ft of climbing. The rest of the course is down hill and a few rollers until the end.
I’ve only run once since then, so who knows if I’ll run another 1/2. I don’t ever feel I’ll run a full marathon; that’s too many miles.
