First Half Marathon - Advice? (Read 521 times)

Hello! Am new to the community aspect of this site... Thought I'd introduce myself and see if I can pick your collective brains for some advice I just got back into running after uni, been at it for three months, averaging between 15 and 20 miles a week, and just completed my first half yesterday. I was aiming for 90 minutes, as that's the sort of pace I was doing over 8-9 miles, and felt comfortable with it. On the day though, I felt myself really pushing at my pace, being about 2 minutes ahead of goal at nine miles, which lead to an inevitable stitch and tired me out for the remainder. I got 93 minutes, which I'm still chuffed to bits about, but how do you guys go about sticking to pace when your brain is telling your body it can go as fast as the guy just ahead of you on race day..?

First of all, well done on completing your first half! That is awesome! And, your time is awesome...you are a speedy runner! I highly recommend utilizing Hal Higdon's training programs moving forward. Here is the URL: http://www.halhigdon.com/ I have done a half and a full utilizing his plans and I met my pace and time goals in both. In the marathon, my training partner, who is 13 years younger and theoretically more fit, and consistently ran our training runs faster than me...well, he went out too fast against my advice, bonked, and finished 40 minutes after me. So, Kirsten is right, get in more miles. I suggest utilzing Hal's plans. And, when you race...run your pace...even if it means starting out a little slower than you want to. There is a great movie about running called Saint Ralph. But, the priest coach gives Ralph some great advice that we can run close to the red line...but, if we cross it and lose our breath...we can not get it back. Cheers!

Something I found very helpful before I ran my first half last Spring was to make sure that my longest run prior to the event was at least as long as the event itself. So I worked up to 13.5 2 weeks before my half, then started a gradual taper. I really had a great time on that day and never once felt discomfort (aside from what can be expected). I am currently training for a 25k and plan to run at least the 15.5 miles a couple of weeks prior to the race. I know that I don't *need* to be able to do much more than maybe 12 miles for my long runs leading up to the race, but just knowing that I have run the distance at least once really helps my mental state--since I've already BTDT I know that I can do the race...there's no unknown. That really helps me to relax during my taper period. k