{"id":10627,"date":"2016-04-01T16:33:57","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T16:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=10627"},"modified":"2016-04-01T16:33:57","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T16:33:57","slug":"how-hard-can-it-be-reporter-completes-half-marathon-with-18-days-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/04\/01\/how-hard-can-it-be-reporter-completes-half-marathon-with-18-days-training\/","title":{"rendered":"&#034;How hard can it be?&#034; &#8211; I ran the half marathon with 18 days training"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LESS than three weeks ago,\u00a0I was dragged into running the IAAF World half marathon for foolishly asking &#8220;how hard can it be?&#8221;<br \/>\nTurns out running over 21k isn&#8217;t as easy as Mo Farah makes it look. Especially with next to no training.<br \/>\nI&#8217;d been set the target of running under two hours and\u00a0not being one to shy away from a challenge, I duly accepted.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10629\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10629\" style=\"width: 139px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Screen-Shot-2016-03-28-at-15.43.58.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10629\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10629\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Screen-Shot-2016-03-28-at-15.43.58-139x300.png\" alt=\"Great weather, as always\" width=\"139\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10629\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10629\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Screen-Shot-2016-03-28-at-15.43.58-139x300.png\" alt=\"Great weather, as always\" width=\"139\" height=\"300\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Great weather, as always<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<strong>First five kilometres<\/strong><br \/>\nI had no concept of what was a realistic time for me to run, and on the advice of some friends I entered a modest two hours 15 minutes.\u00a0I was put in the slowest pen and as someone who has a competitive spirit,\u00a0I was already regretting being with the slowest bunch.<br \/>\nBefore the race, I downloaded an app on my phone which let me know how fast I was running each kilometre. I worked out to run sub-two hours I&#8217;d need to hold a five minutes and 42 seconds each kilometre and based on the little training I had done, I thought this was manageable.<br \/>\nThe first part of the race was a nightmare. Everyone was bunched up and I was weaving in and out of people, trying not to get stuck behind the fun runners while at the same time trying not to waste my energy. I&#8217;d never run this far in my life and the last thing I wanted to do was burn out too quickly.\u00a0My first kilometre was way off pace, six minutes 17 seconds, but I soon found my pace.<br \/>\n<strong>Kilometres 6-15<\/strong><br \/>\nThis was probably the hardest part of the race. Crossing the barrage at around the eight kilometre mark was a particular low point. There was no-one there cheering us runners on and the weather was atrocious.<br \/>\nBy this point the rain had moulded my t-shirt to me and the wind was so strong there was\u00a0a chance I could have been blown into the water. My trainers were dripping with water and squelching with every footstep.\u00a0Needless to say I started to question whether this was the smartest choice I&#8217;d ever made.<br \/>\nAs I made my way round the course, I managed to spot my mum and a few of my friends which definitely helped. I didn&#8217;t want to look like a lemon in front of them so I tried to hold it together the best I could whenever I went past them. I made a conscious effort to overtake a few people to make myself look better than I actually am.<br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 960px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-10627-1\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/VID-20160326-WA0005.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/VID-20160326-WA0005.mp4\">http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/VID-20160326-WA0005.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div><br \/>\n<strong>Kilometres 15-21<\/strong><br \/>\nAs I reached the 15k mark, I was in unchartered territory. Never in my life had I run this far, but I knew I was well under my target time. As I turned onto Roath park,\u00a0I knew there was only a few kilometres between me and the finish line.<br \/>\nJust as I was running past the cemetery on Cathays terrace, my phone notified me I had run the required 21 kilometres.\u00a0All the zig-zagging through the crowds of people had played its part and I had to run over another kilometre to the finish line.<br \/>\nIt was a good job I was ahead of pace otherwise I wouldn&#8217;t have completed the course in under two hours. I ran as fast as my legs would let me after the battering they had endured from the previous 20k, and managed to sneak under the two hour mark with a respectable 1.58:59.<br \/>\nIf I was going to give some advice to anyone thinking about\u00a0running a half marathon, I&#8217;d say some training is advisable. Otherwise\u00a0your legs won&#8217;t thank you the next day. Trust me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LESS than three weeks ago,\u00a0I was dragged into running the IAAF World half marathon for foolishly asking &#8220;how hard can it be?&#8221; Turns out running over 21k isn&#8217;t as easy as Mo Farah makes it look. Especially with next to no training. I&#8217;d been set the target of running under two hours and\u00a0not being one to shy away from a challenge, I duly accepted. First five kilometres I had no concept of what was a realistic time for me to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":10629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,40],"tags":[370,376,2596,382],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-10627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-going-out","tag-athletics","tag-half-marathon","tag-mo-farah","tag-running"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#034;How hard can it be?&#034; - I ran the half marathon with 18 days training - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/04\/01\/how-hard-can-it-be-reporter-completes-half-marathon-with-18-days-training\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#034;How hard can it be?&#034; - I ran the half marathon with 18 days training - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LESS than three weeks ago,\u00a0I was dragged into running the IAAF World half marathon for foolishly asking &#8220;how hard can it be?&#8221; Turns out running over 21k isn&#8217;t as easy as Mo Farah makes it look. 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