I ran my first half marathon this weekend. I trained around 9 minute miles for long runs with tempos around 7:45 pace.
My goal was to finish the half around 1:50. I surprised myself by finishing at 1:45:58. Now I’m wondering if maybe I didn’t race as hard as my training would have allowed.
I felt good the first 3 miles. By mile 5 some hurt. Felt awful after a hill on mile 7, stopped for GU and water and re-tie shoes at mile 8 (wasted a solid minute there). Felt great again until about mile 11.5. Last mile was pure suck but did sprint last 50 meters to finish. I was able to smile and wave at spectators pretty much the whole first 10k.
In comparison to my 5k and 10k races, this race felt so much better. In a 5k I’m in a pain zone pretty much the whole race, and a 10k for at least 2/3 of it. I would honestly say this half was “easier” overall because I actually enjoyed some of it. I’m guessing this means I didn’t run to my full training potential, but I’m not sure.