Mixed feelings

I've always said that my minimum goal for a half marathon is to do it in under 2 hours.  I've cut it close twice before (1:59 in 2013 and 1:58 in 2014) but yesterday I finally fell short with 2:00:15 in the Oslo Half Marathon.

I only ran 100km in training in the previous 12 weeks, which I knew wasn't really enough - it's a good predictor of my race time, and forecast a race time of 2:02, plus or minus 3 minutes.  So 2 hours was possible but unlikely.

On the plus side I had a good idea of my limitations going into the race, and I had a plan to mitigate them as far as possible.  I knew my legs would be the limiting factor, and that I'd probably suffer cramp in the last 5km, so my aim was:

• Run a steady pace.
• No overtaking or weaving through the crowds.
• Relax.

I was lucky to find myself in a crowd running my goal pace, so I managed to stick to the plan throughout.  I had the first sign of cramp in some hills around the 15-16km mark, but ran through it and managed a moderately quick last km and even a sprint finish - but by that stage I knew that 2 hours was out of reach.

So I'm happy with my performance on the day - it was pretty hot as well, which didn't help - but disappointed at how lazy I've been over the last 3 months.