A Retrospective On My First Half Marathon
My Results
On November 4th, I ran my first ever half marathon. It was the longest I’ve ever run in my whole life. Before I started taking running seriously, running 3+ miles every run seemed impossible.
I ran a 1:50:40 (8:27/mi) half marathon, a time I’m extremely happy with for my first race. Training for and running this half marathon was extremely fun and rewarding. Not every day did I want to get out of bed and do my workout. Sometimes I missed workouts, but I still went out and achieved what I wanted: a sub 1:55 half marathon.
What Went Wrong
Let’s jump right into what I could have done better. Like I said before, I missed some workouts. Mostly, when I was about 6-8 weeks out, I struggled to find motivation. I wish I hadn’t missed those workouts. During that time I could have gotten faster and improved my fitness even more for the race. Every workout matters when you’re in a training block for an event like this, and you should try to do them all.
I don’t think I pushed myself to my full potential during training because of these missed workouts. I also underestimated what I was capable of doing at the beginning of my training. I had never run any races before so I had no idea what race pace should feel like or how fast I should run during training. After running this half, I realized that I needed to increase my race pace as I don’t think it was as hard as it should have been, and I know I’m capable of more.
I did not allow my body to recover properly after the half-marathon and I started running again too soon. The race was on a Saturday, and I ran again on the Tuesday after. Two days later, on Thursday, I did a speed workout, and during that workout, I injured my foot. I’m still recovering from that now, and I haven’t run in about a week. I should have given my body more time to recover considering the week of the half marathon was the most weekly mileage I had done since starting training.
What Went Right
If I were to talk to someone who was just starting to run and wanted some advice for a first race I would tell them two things:
- Pick the right shoes
- Fuel Properly
These are the two things I found to help me the most on this first running journey.
Picking the Right Shoes
This was a pivotal moment in my running journey for me. When I say picking the right shoes, I do not mean going out and spending $250 on a pair of the nicest carbon-plated shoes money can buy. I’m talking about getting shoes that fit you properly and do not cause you pain in the long run (get it?).
When I was trying to get into running last year, I went to a local running store where the employees measured my feet and got me into a pair of running shoes that supposedly fit me. When I started running in them, they gave me blisters in my foot’s arch area. I initially thought this was because I needed to break in the shoes before they fit me properly, but that never happened. This crushed my motivation to run, especially since I was a beginner just starting out.
Starting this training block, I still had those same shoes from last year that were giving me blisters. I laced them up and used them for about a month before one day I had blisters so bad on my feet I had to walk 2 miles back to my car because I could no longer run from how much pain it would cause. That same day, I returned to the running store and told them about my experience with the shoes. They got me fitted in a pair of Saucony Ride 15s (they were on sale, and I didn’t want to spend much). This made a huge difference for me. I could run and not experience any pain in my feet afterward; it just made everything feel easier.
Fueling Properly For Race Day
During my training, I made it a point to try out some different meals before long runs or big workouts. I was looking for what would make me feel the best during the runs. Everyone is going to be different here so you’ll have to do some experimentation of your own. Some things that I would look for though:
- Ensure the food is higher in carbs
- Look for good fats
What I found out is eating a higher-fat diet specifically for meals before runs always made me feel like I could run forever. For me, having some dairy or avocados really helped me. I run in the mornings, so these foods are usually consumed the night before.
As for run nutrition, I’m not affiliated in any way, but I use BPN supplements, specifically their G1M Sport for pre-run fuel and Go gels for intra-run fuel.
My Next Challenge
In 2024 I’m going to run a full marathon. I would like to run the Charlotte Marathon again, but it is not until November 2024. I think I could prepare sooner for a full, but I know I want to run some other races as well, and I could use the in-between time to try out some other distances and get my baseline PRs.