Daylight savings in Autumn 2014, the clocks fall back and we have an extra hour in our day. My roommate Kailee and I decide to make the most of this extra hour by signing up for the Berlin Half Marathon, which our friend Ash planned on racing. Little did we know we’d lose that hour literally the day before racing, when Spring daylight savings came around…

We flew out to Berlin last weekend and raced our first half marathon ever.

For Ash – having only raced 10ks in the past – signing up for the Berlin Half Marathon was an achievable stepping stone to ramp up his distance.

For Kailee – 21kms means a lot more. Kailee suffers from a Thyroid disease which has a huge impact on her strength and energy. Since being diagnosed and before signing up for the race, Kailee hadn’t run more than 3ks straight. I seriously admire her courage for signing up for the Berlin Half Marathon on more or less a whim!

For me – the 21km distance isn’t foreign to me… my main goal was to approach training and racing sensibly so I’d avoid shin splints and injury (a previous post on that here). 

We all started training for the race in January – all in different ways that suit our fitness level, work commitments and lifestyle.

Our goals

• Ash – Sub 2hrs
• Kailee – 2hrs 20mins
• Allison – 1hr and 45mins

Our finish times

• Ash – 1hr and 56mins
• Kailee – 2hrs and 12mins
• Allison – 1hr and 47mins

The Event

We had a wicked time in Berlin and really enjoyed the event – I would definitely recommend it for athletes of all levels. The race was really well organised and being a flat course, you didn’t have to worry about strenuous hills. There were crowds of people all along the course cheering you on and creating a really energetic atmosphere.

All of us walked away as happy campers (albeit slowly and stiff like). If you’re interested to get a bit more personal… be sure to check out my next post where I’ll be talking about pre-race jitters and my personal race experience.