It is now 5 days since my Cadbury Marathon half-marathon.


The write up I did ...


Sunday -- Today I ran my very first Half Marathon!!! 21.2 km.

Stats according to Strava
Distance: 21.30km
Elevation: 177m
Moving Time: 2:51:15
Elapsed Time: 2:53:17
Pace: 8:02/km
Calories:1,694

I had done four 10Ks in the past year, and so I figured I was ready. I signed up for the Cadbury Marathon and selected half marathon. Then I started training in earnest ... for about a week or so. December was an incredibly busy month and I wasn't able to get in as much training as I wanted, but I still tried to walk lots, run when I could, cycle when I could and climb stairs.

Fortunately I had 16 days off over the Christmas break and I was able to be active every day.

I ran a 12 km two weeks ago, and a 14.4 km last weekend. The 12 km went all right ... the 14.4 went all right while I was running, but I felt awful after. I'm actually glad that happened because it altered my strategy for the better.

This past week, I just walked in order to give myself rest.

Today, I was up at an absolutely unearthly hour of the morning (4 am), on the road by 5 am, and at the event by 5:45 am.

The marathon runners were set off at 6 am, and my event went at 6:30 am. Rowan's event (5K) went at 8:45 am.

It was a perfect day ... blue sky and hardly any wind. The starting temp was 10C and it gradually increased to 18C by the end.

I followed my revised strategy which appeared to give me the energy to the end. Rather than running on an empty stomach the whole way, I was doing gatorade and water at the drink stations, and Gu Energy Chews along the way. I also ate about half an hour before the run. Fuel is good!

And then I settled into my pace and jogged.

My legs were cooperative until about 18 km when they decided they'd had enough of this nonsense, and that's when I started walking & jogging.

I finished in 02:51:11 which was faster than my estimate. I had guessed I'd be somewhere between 3 and 3.5 hours.

AVERAGE PACE: 08:06
OVERALL: 653 OF 694
FEMALE: 342 OF 377
F (50-54): 36 OF 39

A nice solid back-of-the-pack finish for my first half marathon!!


And Rowan? He did his 5K in 46 minutes ... mostly jogging with a little walking. I was so proud of him.


We got our bags of chocolate and stuff from Cadbury, and great medals! We shared hot chips while watching the presentations for the top 3 of each event. Then we came home and slept for about 3 hours.

I'm quite stiff and sore, and I think Rowan is too a bit. We'll see how I go walking briskly to the bus tomorrow!

But nevertheless, I'm thrilled to have done a half marathon!!



Epilogue: Turns out I tore (slightly) one of my quads in my right leg, so I can walk slowly and cycle, but no running for a bit.