Half marathon!

There are many milestones in long distance running: the first 10 miles, the first race, the first bloody sock, the first black toenail... and on and on. I have already crossed out the first race 5 years ago when I did not consider myself a runner at all, I recently crossed out the first time I ran 10 miles and the first bloody sock, and I will happily pass on the first black toenail if possible. Today, I can cross out an important milestone: my first half marathon. Ok, it was not a race so I should say that it was the first time I ran the distance of a half marathon, but you will all agree that it would sound too cumbersome... right?
I had a 20km run in my program, and as I had already announced I would do, I added two walking stretches as warm up and cool down so that I could reach the distance. In fact I ended up covering more than 21.1km because again I took a wrong turn. Two actually. I wonder why I even bother planning these runs in the woods if I always end up taking wrong turns!

The Stockholm Marathon course consists of two laps around the city center: the first 16.6km and the second 25.6km. To get used to this I have decided to do the same for all of my upcoming runs above 10 miles: a first lap of about 40% of the total distance and a longer second lap to complete the distance, which is incidentally why it would be nice to be able to map each run and follow the plan. I also decided to follow my doctor's advice and include longer stretches in the woods, as a substitute for hill training (I live in the Netherlands, you know?).

Last night the temperature dropped below freezing again so when I went out this morning it was not warm enough to wear shorts, but the day turned out to be a very nice one and there were only plane wakes in the sky...

A different perspective on asparagi fields

I drank some isotonic drink every 5km, except at 10km when I drank a new liquid energy gel. I liked it! You don't need to drink water with it as it's much more fluid than the standard energy gel, and it also had a nice taste so I think I don't need to experiment further: I've found my energy source for during the marathon. Maybe after this one I will try something new, but with just two months (and one day) to go I want to establish my long run routine and get used to it.

I felt great during the whole run, and the beginning of the second lap was made easy by my whole family meeting me there to cheer me on, all three of them on my bike. They couldn't follow me in the woods but they also found me in other places along the course, it was very nice.

The last two kilometers were the fastest of all and the average pace was faster than the recommended pace in my plan. I was a bit afraid the recommended race pace could be too fast (20 seconds faster than long distance training pace), but now I'm confident I can do it. Confidence is a good thing :-)