I’ve trained a few weeks now with marathon in my mind. That
has meant a couple of marathon pace runs, track intervals, and a few longer
runs. Long runs haven’t been that long yet, but I’m trying to increase the
mileage gradually. Right now every kilometer feels like a milestone.
Anyway, after a few weeks of training I wanted to run a half marathon. More or less like a training run, just to get half of the distance covered at my target pace. I’m not too thrilled about doing long pace runs on my own, so entering to an organised event seemed like an easier option. Initially I wanted to do Birmingham half but after checking the price of the flights I chose to stay in Sweden.
Lucky enough I managed to find a half marathon on the west
coast and hopped on an early morning train (6:50am) to get there in time to an
afternoon start. From Göteborg I took to a local train to get to Varberg and
from the station I walked to the event centre. Plan was to follow a stream of
runners from the train but I saw none. After 20min walk towards the start I
still hadn’t seen any fellow runners and got slightly worried whether I had
looked the date wrong. But eventually I found some signs and got to the club
hut. It was a local orienteering club who arranged the event and their club hut
was a natural gathering place.
It was a small event with less than 300 participants but with
a beautiful undulating course running through the parks and forests of a nice
little town named Varberg. Route was only partly on tarmac, partly on gravel,
which meant less impact but slower times. Fine with me. My favorite part of it
was a path running along the coastline with views over the sea. It was
beautiful.
My plan was to run at gentle 4:15 pace. However, first 5k was
very easy and went effortlessly in 19:57. Then tarmac changed to a coastal
path. View was great but maintaining the pace was getting harder. After 7k came
a bigger climb and the pace dropped. 10k in 41:15. Still in schedule. After 11k
came a few more climbs and I also got problems with my stomach. Was it the ryebread? Or the third cup of
coffee at Espresso House? Whatever the reason I was afraid to take my gels
or sport drinks. I had to go on paniagua, or merely just aqua. I also had to
slow down a bit. After slowing down I wasn’t able to pick up the pace anymore
and lost about 4 minutes on the second half. Gentle pace oh yeah… To my excuse the
undulating course on soft trails was certainly not the fastest. I wasn’t too
happy with my run but at least I got a good workout done and some prize money
for the effort. Although staying there for the prize giving meant a quick warm
down back to the station in order to catch a train home (had about 15min to
cover 3km). That was tough.
At this stage I’m definitively quite far away from my goals
and where I’m hoping to be in a month. I mean if I can’t run a half marathon at
my marathon pace, how an earth could I run the whole distance at that pace?
Luckily I’ve got a few more weeks to train. Although I think I may need to
adjust my paces a little. But the good news is that my legs are doing much
better and getting used to the increased mileage. After only a few weeks of
training I’m recovering much quicker and barely felt that half marathon in my
legs afterwards. It’s a huge improvement from where I was after Lidingöloppet!
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| Start of the race (FK Friskus) |
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| 2nd woman (FK Friskus) |
