Let the racing begin! I felt very unprepared for the Kingston Half Marathon last weekend… Signing up for an early season race seemed like a good idea in January but like many, not everything goes to plan January/ February; they’re just tough months!

I have been focusing on keeping active and staying positive, but I haven’t placed focus on training towards any specific goals/races yet.

That being said, I’m glad my January-self thought it’d be a good idea to do an early season race. Had I trained properly, the race itself could have been more enjoyable perhaps (referencing my finish pic below…tough times). Nonetheless, I got a good sense of my fitness and achieved a PB while I was at it!

RACE SUMMARY

Total time:  1:39:43
Place:  281/1144 runners

Kingston Half marathon race report

For the half marathon distance, I only have two finish times on record — one in March at the Berlin Half Marathon (finish time: 1:47) and one as part of the Zell-Am-See Half Ironman in August last year (run time: 1:55).

I am STOKED to have raced a 1:39 in Kingston this past weekend! Cannot wait to see what some focused training over the summer will do to improve my time further.

All I could think about going into the race was how disappointed I’d be if my half marathon time now, was slower now than it was when I raced a Half Ironman. Remembering how painful it was running 21ks after a 90km cycle kept me in a positive mindset. Having fresh legs to race with almost seemed like a privilege! For runners who haven’t tried triathlon or duathlon, I highly recommend the experience.

When the race started last Sunday, I wasn’t sure what to aim for so my pacing was all over the place. I started with the 1:40 pace setters knowing 1:40 would be tough but seriously within grasps if I could toughen up. I felt really strong when we started so I speed up past the 1:40 pace setters and started thinking, MAYBE I COULD FINISH IN 1:35! 

This lasted 8kms… then there was 4kms of OK toughen up, no one said it’d be easy at this pace. At about 12kms I was seriously struggling. Slowly, all the distance I made getting ahead of the 1:40 pace setters started to shrink. My pace slowed down between 12 and 17ks, allowing the 1:40 pace setters to catch me up and even pass me.

Devastating. I was totally spent; but with only 4kms left, I couldn’t let them get too far ahead. I followed the 1:40 pace again and worked hard in the last 3kms getting ahead and staying ahead of them – BARELY – they were literally right behind me in the end.

I contemplated treating this race as a training session to get some milage in but following a slower pace… I’m glad I decided to push myself instead and test my fitness.

Racing so early in the year is definitely a good motivator to bring back some focus and purpose to my training.

Off season is officially over!