The perfect first half-marathon
Well perhaps, not perfect. It’s not like I won or anything, but the race was exactly as I imagined it would be. Here’s a brief race report:
The race is called the Tuks Alumini Legends 2008, which is held organized by my university - The University of Pretoria. The race started from the Waterkloof Airforce Base. I was about 15mins early and when I came around one of the final corners… surprise! Huge pile-up! Ended up being 15mins late and had to start with the 10km walkers… the shame!! No only joking. I struggled to keep up with those frontrunners… or walkers rather. Amazing how fast those buggers actually are.
I hoped that we would run on the airfields, but instead we just ran down to a nearby dual carriage road and just ran up and down the damn thing. Boooorrrrring!! Sheesh, I can do that any day of the week. Why don’t the spice things up a bit? Anyhow, moving on.
So I decided to keep my HR in zone 3 during the whole race and perhaps gun it towards the end. I warmed up for the first 2kms. I made up good time during the first 5km. It was all downhill, so I was able to stay below 6:00/km. After a turn at 5, we ran uphill for 4km. It was hard to not run faster, but at least I didn’t have to walk.
Things flatten out over the next 8-9km. I found the running to be quite easy up to the 15-16km mark. The left knee started to feel a bit swollen and sore, but luckily it didn’t get any worse. In spite of my legs being a bit tired, I took the pace up a bit for the final 2km. It was mostly uphill, so my average speed stayed more or less the same.
In conclusion, the race was just as I expected (apart from the route). Not easy, but far from tough. I expected the first 10 to be easy, the next 7-8km to be slow but steady, and final parts to hurt a bit more. I don’t think road running is my thing though. Can’t see myself doing many more of these. Perhaps it’ll become a bit more fun if I’m able to increase my tempo a bit.
Logbook Activity
- Type: Run
- Date: 05/31/2008
- Time: 07:00:00
- Total Time: 2:13:52.00
- Average Heart rate: 162
- Max Heart rate: 179
- Calories: 838
- Distance: 21.18 km
- Average Pace: 6:19.35/km
- Ascent: 117 m
Filed under: Run, Race Report |
Digg! this story.
|
Leave a Comment
2 Comments: :
The perfect first half-marathon
May 31st, 2008 5:28 pm
noworries says:
Congratulations! I’m still looking forward to my first half on August 9. Reading your report gave me a peek at what to expect. Thanks!
June 7th, 2008 12:47 am
bigdave_nv says:
good job with the finish andy - keep yourself healthy!