I've done the First Half a couple of years now, it's a half marathon in Vancouver in February and because of that, for many it's the first half marathon of the year. Hence the name.
The nice thing about the race is that it I generally consider October to February prime running season for me. It's cooler in the winter and I spend less time cycling and backpacking.
Doing this race every year let's me see how I'm doing each year with my fitness levels. This year I got an amazing running coach in November, to help me get faster. Together we came up with the goal of getting a personal record on the First Half of beating my last time of 2:04:51. I also set myself a goal of beating 2 hours. Almost 5 minutes faster? Maybe 😀
Then in Costa Rica I injured myself. I ran along a beach (there were few options) and ended up spending 3 weeks not running and then slowly getting back up to speed. This messed up my training schedule.
During training I did a half marathon two weeks before and got a half in 1:58 (moving time) and 2:01 (elapsed time). I did stop for a pee and my airpod fell out. I'd done it! The pressure was off.
Distance
21.12 km
Time
Elapsed: 2h 1m
Moving: 1h 58m
Elevation
📈 121 m
Admittedly the elapsed time was over an hour, but that elapsed time was perfect.
Then to make it worse, I went to the Scotties and Ottawa and getting back to Vancouver the night before.
Race day did not go smoothly however. I made some mistakes that compounded. I had a cup of green tea before the race (caffeine alert), at 7km and 14km I had xact gels (caffeine alert). Both of those gels triggered heart problems for me brought on by too much stress (late night before, a minor cold) and too much caffeine.
Distance
21.32 km
Time
Elapsed: 2h 2m
Moving: 1h 56m
Elevation
📈 82 m
So I would have run something that would normally be a 1:56 pace but I spent a total of 6 minutes on the side of the race recovering from heart problems. The result was that I completed the race in 2:02:10.
So I got my fastest half marathon, yay, well done me.
I avoided any serious heart problems, but did get a good talking to from my cardiologist when I went for a check up afterwards. Avoid the damn caffeine.
Next year, below 2 hours without any heart problems.