The Race Report: My First Half Marathon

THE WARM UP

If you’ve been following along, many of you know that for the past 12 weeks I’ve been preparing for my very first Half Marathon!

Last weekend on Nov. 3rd, the day finally came and I ran the CambridgeSide Half Marathon in Boston in 2:19:28!! 🏁

If you’re interested in watching the journey, check out my YouTube series here.

The goal of this week’s essay is to go over the “Race Report” on how it all went.

-The results

-Nutrition Strategy

-How things felt, etc.

Let’s dive in…

THE RACE REPORT

12 weeks ago I’d never ran farther than 4 miles… in my life.

With PA school starting in a few months, I wanted to endure something truly challenging & see what I could do mentally and physically before starting up school.

Speed workouts, long runs, weight training, we did it all these past 3 months and fast forward 12 weeks and we’re waking up at 4am preparing for race day.

At 6am, I found myself amongst hundreds of runners waiting in line for the bathroom to get out the pre-race “jitters”…

At 6:40am, my beloved girlfriend, Kyra, and I met up with my family to say hello with hugs and high-fives.

As the start grew near, everyone wished me luck and we parted ways.

The announcer counted down from 3 and suddenly we were all off.

4 miles in and I found myself feeling surprisingly calm and cool. We were “cookin’”!

The energy was electric & it was so nice getting to run around the foliage & people along the streets of Boston.

Fast forward and not only did I beat my goal of a 2:30 finish, but we completed the race at 2:19:28!

I felt AMAZING during all 13.1 miles of this race and the 3 months of training truly paid off.

I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Everything went so smoothly and we crushed out goals!

NUTRITION STRATEGY

Running 13.1 miles surprisingly didn’t worry me…

What gave me the most anxiety was my nutrition strategy (before and during the race).

In the end this is what I ended up with and it worked out perfectly for me.

Pre-Race Nutrition

2 hours before the race, at 4:30am, I had protein overnight oats and an english muffin with almond butter.

Here are the recipes:

Overnight Oats (ONOs)

-50g oats

-30g protein powder

-120ml almond milk

-3o g frozen blueberries

-1tsp EACH of cinnamon, flax seeds, shredded coconut, & honey

PLUS, 

-English Muffin (Food for Life brand) + 28g almond butter

This all came down to a total of 720 kcal, 35.5g protein, 97g carbs, & 25g fat

Intra-Race Nutrition

Knowing that I was aiming for at least a 2:30 finish, I aimed for 1 running get every 25 minutes.

This ended up being 5 total gels. Each gel had about 25g carbs + 20-105 mg sodium in each.

I alternated between 3 HUMA gels and 2 Maurten gels throughout the race.

This fueled me perfectly and kept me primed for 13.1 miles of running!

THE COOLDOWN

In the end, I really couldn’t have asked for a better experience for my first Half Marathon.

I would be remiss to not acknowledge my girlfriend, Kyra, and family for their support these past 12 weeks.

Not only did they support me mentally and physically throughout my training, but their love and support on race day was what kept me going.

Getting texts every few miles as they tracked me filled my heart with gratitude and fueled me to Keep Pluggin.

I can also say I officially have the “bug”. I get the hype with running and racing.

Being able to push my body, working towards a goal, and having it all come to fruition on race day brings a feeling of fulfillment that’s invaluable.

There will be many more where this comes from.

Be well & Keep Pluggin.

C.