Oakville 1/2 Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I was very happy with my time, this being my 1st 1/2 marathon. I got lucky and was able to position myself at the front of the start line. The gun went off, had a good start, felt good, my pace was under 5min's a km for the 1st 8km but I was being passed by a few people. I guess being at the front at the start, the faster runners caught up to me. I still was feeling good and at the 45min mark I took a gel. At this point my time was slowing down. By the time I got to the halfway mark I was at 55:35, I was slowing down about 15 sec per km. but I was still feeling good at that time and I was thinking that I might be able finish the race in 1:45.00. but my time was getting slower. At the 1hr and 15 mark I took another gel and I found that the gel helped me. I was thinking that when I get to the 18k mark I could pick up the pace if I want to finish around the 1:45 mark. When I got to the 18k I felt that I still had something left in the tank, so I pushed myself to see how far I could go. I startrd to pass a few people and that got me even more execited so I kept going hard, from 18k to 19k split was 4:45sec I was making up some time. My last 2km weren't too bad. At 20km I knew I wasn't going to make the 1hr45 I was hoping for. I kept going as strong as I could, the last 500m got to me, I was feeling it in my legs and my feet, I started to slow down, but I pushed to the end. At the start of the race my Goal was to be under 2hr, but ideally I wanted to be around 1hr 50mins. I was under my goal by 3 1/2 min's. All through the run I did not stop to walk once, not even through the aid stations. I did not take anything from the aid stations as I had brought my own.

Did some light stretching.


Time to train. Started to train after Belwood that only gave me 4 weeks to train.


Overall the day went great, everything fell into place; right from the beginning: I found a good parking spot, I didn't have to wait too long before the race started, I had a good start position, I felt good from start to finish (no knee pain or cramps), I took my gels at the right time. I really enjoyed doing this distance and would do it again. I was extremely happy with my time.