I had to wait for Risberg all the time. I can’t believe how bad he was! Teaming up with him really destroyed my time. And we are supposed to run over the Alps?
Only joking… I’m the one who were a bit under water at times. Ok, here comes the real story.
I knew the warm weather would be a challenge. I knew my stomach flu less than two weeks ago killed some fitness. I knew I hadn’t trained well for the last three weeks. Spending one week backpacking in Lapland one week sick and one week tapering (like I would have needed that). So these are my excuses for failing my goal of finishing in less than two hours. The clock stopped at 2:19:33. And it was a battle against the heat. Running with a heart rate rocketing to crazy heights. The heart needs to push blood towards the surface of the skin to keep the body cool in warm weather. And it still needs to push blood into the muscles to keep them going. So it has to beat harder and/or faster.
We lined up with the 2:15 rabbit. Why the 2:15 rabbit when my primary goal was to do a sub 2h time? Well, I ran a 2h pace last Wednesday. The run didn’t go well and I realized I wouldn’t be able to keep that kind of pace for more than maybe 1:15. Risberg most graciously decided to run with me. Which I think really helped, especially towards the end.
So we lined up with the 2:15 rabbit. Sweating like pigs only from standing in the sun. It was +31 degrees Celsius in the shadow. Probably one of the hottest days this summer. Off we go.
In the city the heat was intense. No wind and blazing sun rays reflecting from the black asphalt and the surrounding buildings.
At around 7 km I knew I would be in trouble soon. My heart rate climbed over 180 bpm on some uphill bits and it didn’t come back down much. Pretty soon it started to top 190 bpm on the uphill stretches. I ran for fifteen minutes with a heart rate around 190 trying to fool myself I might be ok with it.
”Elite marathoners race with a heart rate of 90-100 % of their maximum. Maybe I too will be able to do it”, I taught.
Hah! A beginner is what I am, far from an elite marathoner. So after the 10 km mark I decided to slow down to get the heart rate down to more sane levels. Speed walking. Jogging. Speed walking. Jogging. Damn it! The 2:15 balloon marking the rabbit disappeared far ahead. From 10 to 17 km was pretty awful. Switching between a slow jog and walking. But it was the only sensible thing to do. After opening too hard. Classic beginner mistake. Guilty as charged.
From 17 km on we increased the pace a bit. I decided to run the last 4 km, no matter what. Oh! A water point! Beautiful. Slowed down to walking drinking and soaking in the water. It felt good. Indeed so good I had to walk a little again. But not for long and we ran the last 2 km.
There was a guy ahead of me, maybe 30 meters from the finish gate. I decided to improve my ranking and nailed him one meter from the gate with a hard spurt. WTF? People were continuing to run after the finish? Risberg floated up beside me and told me we have to carry on for maybe 300 meters more to make a turnabout and finish trough the gate from the other direction. Helvetes helvete! I didn’t have very much left in me after spurting that hard. But somehow I managed to keep up a decent pace, passing by even more people before the real finish.
Yey! I finished my first half marathon race! I maxed out my heart with a maximum heart rate of 201 bpm (probably during the stupid spurt 300 meters from the finish). My average heart rate was 183 bpm.
Now I’m going to get some rest. Before going into low heart rate training mode next week. I have to build endurance for the next upcoming races this autumn.
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