ING Half Marathon

ING half-marathon completed. Swoosh! 👟🔥

Today I completed the ING half marathon in 2:37:47, at a pace of 07:23.

Congratulations to me! 👏👏

My overall position was 7487 out of 8479 classified finishers, (5171 in the male group, 350 in the M50 age group). Overall I gained places from position 7915 at 10km, to about position 7700 at 15km and then to position 7487 at the finish.

Very good for someone who only started the C25K program in June last year and hadn't made an effort in a competitive race since aged about 13.

Whilst my joints and muscles were aching by the end, I wasn't as exhausted as I thought I would be, after my struggle a couple of weeks ago in Kirchberg.

Turns out refueling with water, energy drinks and snacks along the course are a good way to keep going. As does having other people around you to keep up with. Apparently some forms of doping are allowed. It also helped that it was a little cooler at around 21°C thanks to some rain at the start.

A couple of other thoughts:

• The irony of my headset saying low battery for the last 2km!
• The Nike Running Club app I use overstimates the distance by about 7%, it said I ran 22.69km. This makes all my other jogs on my running page inaccurate!

And to wrap up: Right at the start I was queueing for a final pee before the race. I was actually in the portaloo when the starting gun went for the professionals. As we then made our way to the start line, I saw rows and rows of men peeing in the bush on the side. In that case, why don't they reserve the portaloos for the women, and make all the men use bushes!