I usually go into races with a go get 'em attitude. Since my livelihood doesn't depend on my race results I can push as hard as I think I can go and if I fail - I just fail.

“Sometimes you win,
sometimes you learn”

— John Maxwell

The only one knowing this is me and this will give me another kick in the ass to train harder and rest smarter to be in the best shape I can be for the next race.

Sometimes life throws you a curveball and you just wing it. Just show up and see what happens.

That's pretty much what happened. I overtrained a little and didn't rest as much as I should have which resulted in me felling pretty shitty before the race. My legs felt like they were out of stone and I didn't have high hopes for the race. My current best is around 1:28 for a half marathon and I knew that beating this time was out of the question.

1:40 was more realistic so I just decided to run as good as I can for as long as I can and then just try to survive to the finish. Not really a great strategy but it's something.

I squeezed myself to the very front at the start and just followed the guy in front of me.

For the first 9 kilometers it went pretty well. We came to the turning point and one of the volunteers said to (the three of) us that we are in the Top 10.

We kept a nice 4:05 to 4:10 pace for the first half and as you can see from my data things started to get a little tricky from there.

A slight head wind and a gravel surface didn't allow for a faster race for me and I switched my mind to the just-finish-this-race mentality.

I kept running as fast as I could and with every kilometer down I could just feel my legs getting heavier and begging me to stop but quiting wasn't an option for me anyway.

I made it to the 3rd aid station and from there it was just 5 more kilometers and I am done.

"You can run 5 more kilometers even with one leg torn off" was what I kept telling myself. Come on 4 more kilometers. That's not even 5! - I know it's stupid but it works.

For every kilometer gone by I changed to a new mantra and after some time I ended up on the north river bank again and had only 500 meters to go. I looked behind me and a guy I overtook on the 19th kilometer was some 10-ish seconds behind me I knew I wouldn't lose any more places till the finish.

I was into my last 100 meters and with a lot of people close to the finish line, clapping and cheering I was pretty happy that it was all over and I finished the race without a lot of trouble along the way.

As you can see from the image below I had a great time :)

I was surprised when I saw my watch stop at 1:32 which was a lot better then I expected. In the end I finished 15th overall out of 468, 15th man out of 335, and 8th out of 110 in my age group which is not to shabby :)

I am now back in training and getting the form ready for the first of 3 half distance triathlons this season.

Until then,
keep pushing.