Judgement day

On the 14th of October was the day I would run my first half marathon the conditions were not easy as it was really windy which would make it hard going especially running into it, the weather was sunny which was a positive  but I was nervous as hell before the race. As horn went off for the start of the race It was important to get into a running rhythm pace as soon as possible. My main race strategie was to time my self at each 5km mark in to see the progress I was making during the race. In which to achieve my goal I would have to be able run each 5km in at less 30 minutes. At the first 5km mark I ran about 25 minutes which for me this was huge positive I was on target, not tired at all and I had found my rhythm. As I carried on the running was surprisingly easy at the 10km and 15km mark I was still on target and well head on time and for some reason it might have been a gut feeling but I knew I was going to achieve my goal when I was at the 15km mark and had 45 minutes left to go in order to achieve my goal under 2hrs. With still plenty of juice in the legs and the lungs weren't even screaming out for air I was determined to run as hard as possible to see how much I could bet my goal by. When I saw the finish line It was one of the best things I had ever seen in a long time and as I cross the finish line I knew the goal was achieved but what time did I run it in ?. I managed to run my first half marathon in 1hr 43mins 44secs which was 17 minutes under my target time of 2 hours. I was the happiest man on the planet not only did I achieve my goal but I smashed it and a feeling I will never forget.



                                 At the start of the race trying not to show nervous.
                     

                                At the finish line after race. Challenge complete and absolutely buggered

Reflection

I think in reflection the reason for achieving my goal in running this half marathon in under two hours was on race day having a good  race strategie in timing my self at each 5km mark and finding my rhythm early. but the main thing was having stuck to my training programme and following it day by day and week by week it really did help my components of fitness targeted and energy systems as well. Another thing that could have factored was having a strong base line of aerobic fitness before the training it self began. This mainly would have come from playing sport and having previous cross country running experience as well. Overall I found the experience of training and running a half marathon to be enjoyable and I might run it it again some day to bet this time or even take on a full marathon it self.