I had a plan and I DID NOT stick to it.

Below is a longread about the “My Capital” half marathon.

This was my first official half marathon this year and I was a little nervous. I really wanted to run 21.1 km in under 2 hours. That is, at a pace of approximately 5 and a half minutes per kilometer. Of course, this is not a goal for athletes, but that’s why I like running because you compete with yourself yesterday.

This season I have been running since April 22. And since June I have been consciously preparing for the half marathon. This gave me hope to run as planned.

But before starting, two problems arose:

· firstly, it got cold to +8⁰С, and until the last moment I couldn’t decide what to run in?
· secondly, in the morning I woke up with my head practically not turning to the right. I probably had a cold in my neck the day before.

In terms of clothes, I decided to run in a long sleeve shirt + a T-shirt on top, a buff on the neck, a cap on the head, pants on the bottom, and soft Asics. According to the plan, there should have been light saikoni kinvara 14. They are also unofficially called marathon runners for their lightness. But I was afraid to freeze in them, they are really transparent. As a result, I felt hot during the race, and I regretted not wearing them. And shorts would be better than pants. By the way, I tried a raincoat made of film so as not to freeze in the starting corridor – it really works!

I smeared the ointment on my neck and kneaded it, in general it began to turn a little)

The starting town pleased with the festive atmosphere and delicious sweet tea, happy runners who had completed their top fives. Even the sun came out from behind the clouds) There were excellent locker rooms, a storage room and many, many toilets. The organizers are great.

The plan for the race was simple – catch on to the pacer at 5:30 and calmly run out of 2 o’clock. Spoiler: I didn’t know that essentially the whole route consists of 5 long climbs and 5 long descents. Cap's advice – study the route before buying a slot. A pacer is a professional runner who runs the entire distance at a given speed. This helps a lot, you can relax and not control your pace.

5 minutes before the start, my friend says: “I want to run in 1 hour 50 minutes so much that I can’t even eat!” Let’s grab the pacer at 5:10 at the start?” It was risky for me, but I couldn’t refuse my friend? Running faster than you can at the beginning of the race is the most common mistake beginners make. But I believed in my strength, and we ran. At the beginning there was a descent, it wasn’t even bad to run, but already on the first climb my heart rate went through the roof, and I began to fall behind a little. Meter by meter I chugged along until the end of the first climb, gradually moving away from the group running 5:10 with a pacer. The friend ran away with them.

On the second climb I got hot, it was really hard, and I panicked a little. The clock showed a pace of 6:15 – 6:30. At this pace, I couldn’t finish it in two hours, but I thought I’d catch up on the descents. On the third climb, I realized that I couldn’t make it at two o’clock. It became bitter, the goal transformed from a winning goal – in 2 hours, to a minimum goal – just to run and not die on the next climb.

Rescue came at 13 km. As the run turned from a race to a “run”, I slowed down a bit and began to notice artifacts on the side of the course. So what? I saw a banner that indicated the distance – 13 km from the start. And on the clock I only had 11 km. Whether this was due to interference from GPS jamming or the fact that thousands of other runners with watches were running nearby, I don’t know. But my brain quickly added 2+2 and realized that I could complete my time goal! It literally blew up my body! You won't believe it, but I really accelerated on the descents. I accelerated, but controlled that the heart rate was stable in the competition zone and did not increase to the maximum.

And here is the finish – 1:57:53!

Emotions are overwhelming! 2 minutes faster than planned! Yoohoo! And this despite the treacherous slides! Well-deserved medal. Self-pride and a sea of endorphins)