My amity half marathon time was under 2 hrs. Ran that in 1 hr 59 minutes.
Even though that’s like dream come true, the biggest feeling is always *finishing the marathon* more than anything else.
Lot of people forget that and that’s why they get injured and sometimes, those injuries have a life long impact. Progress comes with time… And no matter how slow, patience always pays…
Let’s see, what I bring on in the game in my upcoming half at VDHM.
I have started meditating on it. The mental prep is very crucial. You gotta get up every morning and imagine the race tracks, imagine the venue and imagine the whole race and the race course.
I can’t explain my first ever marathon running experience. Even I tried to, it won’t be enough to express each and every feeling in words. All that I can say in few words is that it was like first love.
And the time that I took to run my first half marathon was 2:23 minutes. And that was like dream come true. I was so anxious the night before and wondered if I would be able to do it. And I really didn’t sleep that well that night before the run.
Having run for now 5 years, I have formed some firm opinions about my running and how I want to run and what kind of performance I want to bring in future. And here it goes :
1. Love the process of running:
Nothing is as important for me as it is important for me to run. The best game for my future is that I keep running for the rest of my life. So, my focus before any run is to run well and enjoy the whole process of running.
2. Stay injury free
Lots of people I know who have got injured while running. And the most common reason that I could infer from their running records is that they tried to do a lot in too little time. Infact what happened with them is that they started running to impress others.
Impressing others with your running performance should be the least of your priority. Keep yourself injury free. Because that’s what would allow you to be enjoying the process and run for ever.
Medals and finish timings don’t impress me as much finishing the races itself!
3. Keep it fun
People no matter what they do make it a matter of their ego! Please don’t do that with running atkeast. Always remember why you started to run!
I started running while I was exploring the options to make my life peaceful. I was going through a lot of stress and I had a lot of personal health and emotional issues. So, when I found life in running, it became a virtual companion for me.
And I would not like to matter it a matter of my ego. I always look for running my dream time which is to be : better than my last run. So, my bench mark is my own race timing of the last race. And not what others are achieving.
I run for good health and positivity and that you can get in ample amount by simply having fun and enjoying the process.
4. Your physiology on the race day is the most crucial factor.
You see you may have prepared yourself to your best but everything may simply fall flat on the race day. You may fall sick or catch cold.
So, stay healthy. Keep your diet normal. Don’t make any dietary changes. Don’t start to exercise too much. Just keep the same level of momentum that you have always kept. Because the way you run on your race day is just the average of your long term efforts.
I mean you should be running effortlessly.
5. Hydrate well.
A lot of race day blunders will be avoided if you have learned how to hydrate well. Don’t drink too much or you will fill your bladder and you will be led to the loos while you should be running, racing and improving your time.
Or if you drank too little water, you will be dehydrated. And you can’t run too long of your body starts to show the symptoms of dehydration.
Concluding…
I think you will do well if you would keep the above 5 points in your heart. Let your race the expression of what you are and not what you want you would like to see it as! (there is the difference between the two). If you understood that, you have become a good runner.
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