Tuesday 19 May 2015

Half Marathon and General Running Tips

A few days ago I ran the annual Chester Half Marathon, finishing in 1 hour 42 minutes; 10 minutes quicker than last year (a new PB). So I thought I'd share a few helpful tips that I learned throughout my training and also on race day.

Training:

1. Probably the most important; start training as early as possible. I started training for my half marathon in January, which gave me a good 5 months to build up my miles slowly, and also allowed time for setbacks, which inevitably will happen.

2. Ensure you have ran a distance similar to the distance you will cover on race day. For a half marathon make sure you can run 10/11 miles before the day or you won't enjoy it.

3. Schedule in a few shorter but faster runs to enable you to run at a quicker pace. I built up to one long run a week, and two shorter ones i.e. one 10 mile, a 6 and a 4.

4. Practice your race-day routine and find what works for you. Most races are at 9am so try running at that time of day and find out what foods to eat beforehand, whether you should use energy gels and at what time to take them, and also what you feel comfortable wearing.

These sorts of things wil help you when it comes to race day!

On the day;:

1. Set out your clothes the night before- you don't want a mid morning panic whan you can't find your favourite t-shirt.

2. Leave plenty of time to get to the start line and say godbye to your loved ones- something I didnt quite manage to do, and didn't help that the race started 3 minutes early!

3. Make sure you line up at your predicted finish time, there is nothing worse than 100s of people trying to overtake you if you are a slower runner, and also nothing worse than starting at a pace slower than yours and trying to overtake slower runners.

4. Drink plenty of water, I ran this race last year in 23 degree heat and witnessed participants collapsing from dehydration/ overheating- make sure this isnt you!

These are just a few helpful tips to, hopefully, get you through your race.

Good Luck!

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