I'm not sure yet whether I will write race recaps (or race stories, as Jesse Thomas thinks they should be called) on this blog. I'm still not sure how anyone can write a novel every single time they race a 5km, but I do think that some races deserve documentation.
In the spirit of this post by Mollie Turner I thought I would go back and look at the 5 previous half marathons that I have run. I am yet to catch the full marathon bug ;)
Race 1: Melbourne Half Marathon, October 2012. (You can read my recap on my old blog here). I was in total denial about being a distance runner at this point, and was stubbornly only running a half marathon for the endurance boost that it would have on shorter distances! I finished in 1:45:15.
Race 2: Jetty2Jetty Half Marathon, July 2013. (Recap here). This was one of my favourite races to date. One of my good friends ran with me and paced me, and I made a conscious decision to actually enjoy the race. It is a beautiful course along the coast, and commenting on the view helped to keep me happy! I was also prepared for the hurt that happens at 16km - I now knew that it didn't necessarily mean that I had gone out at a suicidal pace! I also only ran up to 20km for my long runs, because I'd felt like the long (ie 24km) runs that I did before Melbourne negatively impacted the rest of my training. Finish time 1:41:30
Race 3: Canberra half marathon, April 2015. This race was 9 months after the bear cub was born. I started back running at about 2 months post partum, and only ran 3 or 4 days per week in the lead up to this race (I actually only ran this often until Ted hit 12 months old - and it was all easy/low heart rate training). I ran this race relatively easily, and finished in 1:46:26. The most memorable part of this run (other than seeing my family at the finish line) was how awful the recovery was! A combination of limited mileage, breastfeeding and lack of sleep meant that I turned into a complete zombie in the afternoon after the race. I crashed and burned hard! I don't think I would run a half marathon off this amount of training again.
Race 4: Twilight Bay half, September 2015. I actually started to feel like a runner again in the lead up to this race. I started doing interval sessions once a week, and averaged probably 50km per week in the build up. The course wasn't quite as flat/fast as I was expecting, and I ran a lot of the race solo. I was very happy with my time of 1:37:44, which was good enough for an age group win!
Race 5: Brisbane's Great South Run, April 2016. This is the hardest that I have ever trained for a race. I actually wrote out a plan for myself and stuck to it pretty well! Most weeks hit 70km, with about 3 faster runs per fortnight (either threshold, intervals or races). I also incorporated half marathon race pace into a lot of long runs. I had PB'd in both the 5km and the 10km in the lead up to the race, so I was feeling ready to run a fast time. I was lucky enough to be paced by another friend, who kept me sensible during the first 12km and really pushed me hard for the final 9km. My heart rate averaged 185bpm for the final 5km, which shows just how hard I was working! I finished in 1:34 flat and it was a very satisfying result!
I am not sure when I will run a half marathon again. I think that beating my last time will take a lot of hard work, so I'm content to continue to work on improving my 5km and 10km times again.
In the spirit of this post by Mollie Turner I thought I would go back and look at the 5 previous half marathons that I have run. I am yet to catch the full marathon bug ;)
Race 1: Melbourne Half Marathon, October 2012. (You can read my recap on my old blog here). I was in total denial about being a distance runner at this point, and was stubbornly only running a half marathon for the endurance boost that it would have on shorter distances! I finished in 1:45:15.
Race 2: Jetty2Jetty Half Marathon, July 2013. (Recap here). This was one of my favourite races to date. One of my good friends ran with me and paced me, and I made a conscious decision to actually enjoy the race. It is a beautiful course along the coast, and commenting on the view helped to keep me happy! I was also prepared for the hurt that happens at 16km - I now knew that it didn't necessarily mean that I had gone out at a suicidal pace! I also only ran up to 20km for my long runs, because I'd felt like the long (ie 24km) runs that I did before Melbourne negatively impacted the rest of my training. Finish time 1:41:30
Race 3: Canberra half marathon, April 2015. This race was 9 months after the bear cub was born. I started back running at about 2 months post partum, and only ran 3 or 4 days per week in the lead up to this race (I actually only ran this often until Ted hit 12 months old - and it was all easy/low heart rate training). I ran this race relatively easily, and finished in 1:46:26. The most memorable part of this run (other than seeing my family at the finish line) was how awful the recovery was! A combination of limited mileage, breastfeeding and lack of sleep meant that I turned into a complete zombie in the afternoon after the race. I crashed and burned hard! I don't think I would run a half marathon off this amount of training again.
Race 4: Twilight Bay half, September 2015. I actually started to feel like a runner again in the lead up to this race. I started doing interval sessions once a week, and averaged probably 50km per week in the build up. The course wasn't quite as flat/fast as I was expecting, and I ran a lot of the race solo. I was very happy with my time of 1:37:44, which was good enough for an age group win!
Race 5: Brisbane's Great South Run, April 2016. This is the hardest that I have ever trained for a race. I actually wrote out a plan for myself and stuck to it pretty well! Most weeks hit 70km, with about 3 faster runs per fortnight (either threshold, intervals or races). I also incorporated half marathon race pace into a lot of long runs. I had PB'd in both the 5km and the 10km in the lead up to the race, so I was feeling ready to run a fast time. I was lucky enough to be paced by another friend, who kept me sensible during the first 12km and really pushed me hard for the final 9km. My heart rate averaged 185bpm for the final 5km, which shows just how hard I was working! I finished in 1:34 flat and it was a very satisfying result!
I am not sure when I will run a half marathon again. I think that beating my last time will take a lot of hard work, so I'm content to continue to work on improving my 5km and 10km times again.