2nd Annual Worldwide Half Marathon

On the weekend October 13/14 the 2nd Annual Phedippidations Worldwide Half Marathon took place, all over the world. Here is a report of my Worldwide Half:

Since there was no official HM race in my area at this weekend, I figured out my HM race course on buckeyeoutdoors.com (click here to view the route). In fact, this HM course is to a large extent identical with my usual 30 k long jog course.

Currently I’m training for the Dublin City Marathon on Oct 29th. I wanted to do a last long run this weekend. But a HM and a long run (30 k) seemed too much for one weekend. So I decided to run a real hard HM on Saturday (My World Wide Half), and a comfortable 15 k on Sunday.

So this morning after breakfast I put on my running shoes and headed out, without a real race tactic.

There are traffic lights 800 meters from my home where I always check my pace. Normally it takes me 4:15 to 4:30 to reach that place. Today I was there after 3:45. Too fast, I thought. But the funny thing with races is that you run always faster than in training. I always thought that is because of the other runners in a race, but today I was alone. It must have something to do with “race feeling”.

I kept this pace anyway. It’s worth trying, I thought. Perhaps I would regret it in the second half of my race, but after all, no one was watching me. If I slowed down at the end, nobody could see it.

12 k into the run, there is a relatively steep hill of 3 k length. I tried to keep my pace, but of course I slowed down a little. But I still felt good.

On the last 6 k I began to feel a little bit weak, I had resumed the fast pace I ran before the hill, and now it was really hard. But I was heading home, and that is another miracle in running: heading home is always easier than running away from home.

I deliberately didn’t look on my watch. I had a feeling that I was fast, that was enough. Besides, even if my watch had told me I wasn’t as fast as I thought, I couldn’t have run faster. I was at my limit.

I reached my town, then reached my street, then my home. Stopped my watch. 1:43:45. Two minutes faster than 2 weeks ago at an official half marathon. Great race, great run!

I wouldn’t have thought before I could run alone and consider that run as a race. Yesterday evening I listened to the “Cheers”-episode of Phedippidations, and it became clear to me: this IS a real race! Thanks Mal, Terry, Ben, John, Steve and all others who helped setting up this race!