Prague Half Marathon

Yesterday was the Prague Half Marathon. I am very happy with my race this year.  My goal was to beat my time from last year of 1:59:43 with a target of 1:57 and I'm proud to say I did it in 1:57:48!!!  I also kept my pace very even this year which was another focus for me.  Last year my split times were all over the place but this year I was fairly consistent and even able to run negative splits except for between the five and ten kilometer when my split time was a little faster. 

The training for the half this year was more difficult than last year since we had such cold weather and so much snow but it was made easier since I was training with friends.  My friend Beanie and I started our training together in January (even though we run together all year we actually had a structured training plan in place starting in Jaunary).  Our friend Pernille joined us a little later in the training since her training partner had to stop training.  We spent many hours together out in the cold and getting our bodies ready for the race.  This was their first half marathon and despite getting colds the week before the race and myself getting the stomach bug we all did really well.  I'm very proud of our running team!  I can't wait to run with my friends again in a less structured more social way.  There is nothing like having a good chat while we excercise.

This year the race was absolutely packed. There were 8,447 runners registered to run this year. That is about 2,000 more runners than last year. It felt like it too. I was never in a place by myself and was constantly moving around people and having people move around me.  It was still a good race though.  The temperature was 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees F).  It was mostly cloudy with sun peaking through at times and no rain.  The forecast had been calling for rain so I'm glad it held off until after the race.  Given how hot I was last year in the race I decided to just be cold at the start this year and I wore 3/4 length pants, short sleeve shirt and a visor so I could let the heat escape from my head.  It was perfect. I was still a little hot but that is to be expected when running 13.1 miles.  (I had already changed out of my sweaty clothes before the picture above and put on my regular hat since once I stopped running 10 degrees felt quite chilly!) My breakfast of egg and toast followed by a banana worked out well and I had no stomach problems during the race.  I had a slight twinge at about mile 11 but at that point I had a lot of twinges all over!  I drank some water and that seemed to settled my stomach back down.  Figuring out what to eat before the race is difficult since I usually have food and then run an hour later but with the race not starting until noon I needed to have a completely different routine.  I'm glad it all worked out.  Running the half is similar to child birth I think in that when you finish it is a relief and you think, "I'll never do that again!" but a year later you find yourself back on the start line!  Somehow over the course of eight months your mind forgets how difficult the race is so that by January you find yourself signing up again and starting training.  At this point I am still thinking that I'm done with the Prague Half Marathon but I won't rule it out until next year comes around.