My First Half Marathon Experience

This past weekend I ran my very first half marathon.  I have been dreaming of running a half marathon the last year, but things kept getting in the way of my training, until I committed to the Philadelphia Rock N Roll Half Marathon this past April.

I invested in my Nike Frees – which are a gift from heaven since I feel like I can run forever in them! AWESOME BUY.  I purchased my entry fee for the half marathon, and I found a training plan to psych myself up!

Even though I have a full time job and would like to keep my social life, training didn’t stop me from living much.  Yes, some things would be sacrificed here and there – like a day of shopping or a night out – but not as much as I had expected before beginning training. I didn’t follow a very strict plan, but if I had, I am sure I would have been more successful in the race.

My healthy eating habits somewhat flew out of hand with the long mileage since I was craving more sugary foods and carbs than I normally would desire after a strength training workout.  Therefore, like I had heard from some other bloggers after training, like Julie, I noticed a few small differences in my body, but not much.

The training plan I was following also mentioned to stretch and do strength training about twice a week, while running three days weekly.  Because of my schedule, I was often exhausted and not feeling workouts that didn’t help me to increase my mileage, so I admit – I slacked in these departments.

I didn’t realize how important they would be to my performance on race day, but I definitely know that strength training would have helped me to feel less sore and increase my speed.

I had an awesome run going throughout the first 10 miles, until my knee began to ache a bit, leaving the last three miles be a bit slow.  I finished though! And it was a lot more fun than I had previously thought it would be!

The GU energy gels helped to push me through, as well as the adrenaline from seeing everyone doing the very thing I love to do – RUN.

And even better, there were bands at every mile marker to cheer us on!

Have you run a half marathon? What worked for you?

Of Possible Interest:

• Goals (RunningwithSass.com)
• Oat Recipe (LifeOfBlyss.com)
• FitBloggin ’12

Tagged as: Challenge, Half Marathon, healthy-living, races, running, Training