It was October the 23rd of 2022. Finally, it’s time to run my first ever half marathon. I’ve been dreaming about running a full marathon for a couple of years now, and this half marathon is a very big, first step in achieving my ultimate goal.
I left home at around 8h30 in the morning with my electric bike and I consider the 6 km I need to bike to the start of the race as a good way to warm up my muscles. After setting my bike aside, I walk towards the small building where we can collect our bib. I’m immediately greeted by some members of my local running club and get handed bib number 202. The bib already has my name printed on and after receiving it, I try to stick it to my T-shirt as professionally as I can (I leave a visual representation of this over to your imagination 😆). Is there actually anyone out there who’s able to do this easily without hanging the bib all crooked and crumpled? 😅 (If so, please let me know in the comments below, cause I really need some advice here.)
It’s 9h20 and everyone getters at the start of the race where the organisers start to whip up all runners with some warming up exercises. It’s exceptionally warm for this time of the year in Belgium (it’s forecasted to be 20 degrees celsius today) and I’m all ready and waiting for the starting signal in my shorts and T-shirt. Just a few weeks ago (while I was still living in Berlin), I regretted not bringing my thick winter coat and right now it’s so warm that I’m almost sweating before the actual start of the race.
At 9h30, it’s finally time for the starting signal and everyone starts to run. I keep my finger ready to press the start button on my watch the second I cross the starting line. I run in the middle of the pack for the first kilometer and gradually try to move forwards. The ultimate goal for my half marathon is to run it in under 1 hour and 45 minutes. In order to achieve this goal, I preloaded the race track on my watch and set it up to help me pace during the race. I have a special strategy in mind that I want to adhere to during this race, but I’m completely unsure on how this is going to go. Not only is this the first time ever that I’m attempting to run a half marathon, this is also actually the very first time that I’m planning to follow a specific pre-determined pacing strategy. My plan is to start off pretty fast at a 4:46 min/km pace and gradually slow down every kilometer until I reach a 5:10 min/km pace for the last kilometer (which should allow me to achieve my goal with a little bit of margin). This pace is relatively high for me, but still leaves me confident enough that I’m not going to burn out in the middle of the race. I’m even secretly hoping that I might achieve a little bit more, but that’s something that I’m going to need to see and experience during the race.
A few minutes later and about one kilometer into the race, I have already passed quite a big portion of the runners that started in front of me and I estimate that I’m running somewhere along the 30th position. In all races that I’ve run so far, I mostly tend to start somewhere in the middle and gradually overtake people in front of me. It gives me a psychological advantage not to be overtaken by someone else and, instead, slowly overtake the people in front of me to gain some extra confidence during the race. If I start off too fast, the opposite might happen and it will be much harder to push through and defend my spot.
After about 5 kilometers, a light drizzle has come up and I see the first aid post appearing in the distance. I can already hear the volunteers cheering us on while they’re waving a cup of water in the air. The rain doesn’t disturb me at this point and I secretly even like it 😊 (never thought I’d say this in late October). The rain cools me down and makes sure that I don’t dehydrate as fast as I otherwise would and since I’m carrying my own water bottles, I decided to skip this aid post and run along. One of the nice things of running a race organised by your local running club is that you recognise and know a lot of the people you meet along the way. The volunteers that are handing out water are people that I otherwise run with during the week and them cheering me on really gave me a boost.
We’re steadily running along and I am slowly reaching the “Steengelag” in Stekene. This small nature reserve is situated in the location of an old clay quarry and provides some nice trails for walking and running. Most trails are already very muddy since there’s been a lot of rain over the last few days and I really need to focus to stay upright and to avoid slipping in the puddles. The pace dictated by my watch has already decreased a little bit compared to the first kilometers and I could start to slow down a little bit without jeopardising my 1 hour 45 minutes goal, but I’m actually still feeling pretty strong and decide to just go along with the 4:46 min/km pace I started with.
Ten kilometers into the race, it’s slowly starting to become time to replenish my glucose levels. I pick an energy bar from my small running backpack and immediately start to eat the chocolate and banana flavoured cereal bar. It’s really hard to eat these things while you’re running. I’m trying to synchronise my breathing with the peristaltic movement of my oesophagus, but I don’t fully succeed. My stomach almost immediately complains and I decide not to eat any energy bars for the rest of the race. At this point, we’re saying goodbye to the muddy trails of the “Steengelag” and we continue running on concrete roads. The muddy and hilly trails, combined with my failed attempt to eat an energy bar, have taken a bite out of my energy reserves and for the first time in the race, I have to slow down a little bit and motivate myself to keep on pushing hard.
It’s almost 10h30 now and I’m over halfway. I’m approaching a crossroads where a signalman tells me to turn right. I take the turn, run along, and after 200 meters I see a car approaching me in the opposite direction. This is a little bit unexpected and I’m a bit confused. I thought all roads for this half marathon were closed, and my confusion only increases when I see more cars approaching me from the front. I start looking around me and suddenly I see some runners ahead of me on the opposite side of a little creek. Apparently there were two right turns very close to each other at the previous crossroads and I chose the wrong one… 😱 I start to panic a little bit and was looking for a way to cross the creek and join the other racers without losing too much time. Luckily I run in this area quite a lot during a summer and I remember that there’s a little bridge a little bit ahead which means that I don’t have to turn around and go back to the signalman. I cross the bridge, and I’m back on course. It doesn’t make much difference distance-wise (both roads alongside the creek are completely parallel to each other) and the bridge comes up at the perfect moment, right where the trail that I was supposed to take was deviating from the creek.
The adrenaline that was released during my little moment in panic scared all the fatigue away from my body and I’m full of energy again. My speed increases and I can slowly feel the finish line coming closer. At kilometer 17, I’m greeted by my dad and my brother who were both waiting alongside the track to cheer me on. I feel an extra spike in my energy and I decide to push on at my starting pace of 4:46 min/km. To further motivate myself, I start to think about my 2 best friends who where also going to cheer me on. We decided on a meeting point beforehand and the closer I get, the faster I’m going. I’m just about to start my final 2 kilometers when I see and hear them shouting in the distance. The finish line is so close at this point and I’m feeling so hyped that I feel unstoppable. My pace increases further to 4:22 min/km and I overtake more and more people on my final kilometer to the finish line. Some of them are exhausted, while others are harder to catch up to. I don’t know exactly how many people are still in front of me, but I estimate that there are a little less than 20 runners ahead of me.
The last 200 meters are really hard. I’ve been speeding up so much by this point that my heart rate is going trough the roof. I can taste the finish and if I push really really hard, I can even make it in less than 1 hour 41 minutes. I try to ignore my body and it’s lack of breath, and push on to cross the finish line in 1 hour, 40 minutes and 56 seconds. I finished will ahead of my 1 hour 45 minute goal and I’m so so happy with my final result. My dad, brother and my two best friends are already waiting at the finish for me and this really was just the perfect race for me. I couldn’t have imagined it to go any better and now I really want to push through and finally run a full marathon in 2023.
Resources
In order to run to motivate myself during this race, I prepared an uplifting and energetic playlist in advance. This playlist contains a collection of high-tempo songs that feed me with energy. In case you are interested to take a look at my playlist and maybe even use it yourself during an upcoming race (or training), feel free to subscribe to this list on Spotify.
If you want to check out the full route, you can take a look at my Strava recording of the race or head over to the official website of the event.
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