New PR - Bet Shean 1/2 Marathon

On Friday we made the long trip up north to Bet Shean to run the Bet Shean 1/2 Marathon.  We left very early, 6:30 am and arrived 2 hours later to a beautiful, clear, sunny and quite hot day.  The marathon starts from Gan HaShalosha, which is a water park with three beautiful mayonot (springs), and continues through the area under some beautiful low mountains and commercial fish ponds!  The course was pretty flat, until about 14.5 km where there is a steady climb through the local small town.  Interesting note on the course is that the highway was permanently marked with the distance, which makes me think that this is probably a route run often by local runners and/or bikers.  There was over 2,500 participants, and is the premiere 1/2 marathon in Israel. 

One of the three beautiful natural springs in the park

My blister had me very worried, but by race time, the adrenilin in me had me all but forgetting about it.  I planned to run a 6:00 pace and hoped to take a good amount of time off my last HM, considering this was a flat course and I had that much more training under my belt. 

The starter pistol was probably real!

I'm in this crowd somewhere.  I felt absolutely dwarfed by all this big guys!

Blue & White!

I went out a little fast, but don't feel like I over did it at all.  Much of the first 14 km I ran anywhere from 5:32 to 5:55.  I felt like I hit a stride that I was very comfortable with.  However, there was not much shade and the heat of the day started to set in.  I think 9:30 is a bit late to start and by the half way mark, I was feeling the effects of the heat.  At 14.5 km the climb through the local town started, and even though I had a good time through the climb (5:40, 5:55, 5:58) it seemed to sap the life out of me.  By 18 km I was already having to convince myself that I was not going to walk - just keep it going and stay focused.  By this time my last 3 km were (6:04, 6:13, 6:12) but no way was I slowing down.

My official time was 2:04:54 but the clock was only reading the last digits...

But - woohoo!  I set a new PR!  2:04:54 with an average pace of 5:53.  Faster than the 6:00 pace I thought I'd run.  Everyone that finished with me seemed drained by the heat - and when I came through the gate I was so exhausted.  (I think I drank a litre of water within the first 15 minutes!)  I was so looking forward to my frozen Gatorade, but darn it if it wasn't still frozen solid! 

All in all, a great time and a thrill to run amoungst so many!

This coming week I have my last long run (32 km) and then the week after starts my taper.  I am getting so excited about the upcoming Marathon - I think my cup runnith over with adrenilin already!

Have a good one,
Jenny

Opening Musings

While I'm not exactly new to running - blogging, well that's a horse of a different colour... I'd like this blog to be a place where the odd ramblings in my head find new life instead of simply bouncing around and around until they wear themselves out...

I've only just gone back to running this past six months after having an eight year break!! I've traded in the treadmill for the great outdoors, and am training for my first HM on March 18th.

It's amazing how 'once a runner, always a runner' worked for me. After such a long break, you would have thought that it would take a long time to get back up to speed. But here I am, finished 7 of 9 weeks of training before the half - and I'm ready. Friday's run was 22 km and I recovered well enough to run 11.25 km recovery Saturday night. Today I feel great.

Only 5 training runs before the big event - and I'll admit to being scared! Yikes!

I keep scanning all the blogs and websites for tips and personal stories of HM runs... I'm the kind of person that likes to know what's coming up - no suprises for me, please! So - I'll keep surfing the web and training and see how it goes...