Yes another race! Last Sunday I completed the Nelson Half Marathon, despite being ill and sick for the build up. I never gave up and tried to keep pushing the whole way as hard as I could.
Well in the race there were over 400 people at the start line, so it was reasonably jammed packed. My friend Josef Scott was also racing but he had done a few half marathons before, but he had to stop and walk because of other issues in the past. So I was really pleased that he finished in 1.36 without having to stop.
Well my race. When the gun went out, I was running with the guy in first place just sticking behind him, he was aiming for a 1:15, which is what I was originally intending for. I didn’t know really what I was capable of doing as I hadn’t pushed myself in a few weeks really. Anyways we went out way to hard and after the race he even admitted it. 1st kilometer was 3:10 next kilometer was 3:15. I followed right behind this guy for about 5km then I had to drop the pace I knew it wasn’t sustainable for the whole race.
After that I was alone for about another 1km or 2km. Then the next couple of guys caught up to me and I tried running in a pack with them but even they were running 3:35 a kilometer. The first 10km I ran in 35:50 ish. which was way too hard, my race predictor told my I was going to finish in 1:12. Knowing this was good I had a little bit of excitement. After that I was sitting a few hundred meters of the third place and just stayed off him as much as I could.
It started to get really hot then and every single runner slowed down. My pace dropped to about 3:48 for quite a while as I was exhausted. I had pushed too hard, too early. The last 5km I told myself I was going to run in less then 19 minutes. I just accomplished that and I was running about 5 seconds a kilometer faster in the last 4 kilometers or so which was good.
The end of the race was slowly coming with less than 500 meters to go, I tried my best to pick the pace up and then the last 150m I gave it everything. When I crossed the line I was hurting. How can Eluid Kipchoge run a sub 2 hour marathon without falling over at the finish or hurting that much, its crazy.
I ended up finishing the Half Marathon in 1 hour 19 minutes and 20 seconds a new PB and I am really happy as I have raced one before. Also being sick for the last 3 weeks has not helped either. I reckon if I hadn’t been sick I could have run even faster. And been closer to getting that 1:15 that I want.
Thanks for listening to my commentary on my race I hope you have a race soon and this inspires you to keep pushing to go faster and do better than your previous time, place and pace.
Cheers Luke Clatworthy (Clatters Chatter)
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All Luke’s previous articles can be found here:
https://www.coachray.nz/category/client-stories/clatters-chatter/