Last month, I attended 11th Nanning international half marathon and ranked 1541 out of 4695 competitors, with 2:01:37 finishing time.

I signed up this event 3 months ago, the second day when the registration was available. I was really looking forward to finishing an official half marathon, since I had done once in a gym, and this experience provided me with the confidence that I had the capability to stick to the end.

However, only one month was left for preparation after I finally received an offer and terminated that dreadful job-looking period. During that one-month practise, the furthest distance I ran was 15km, a week before the match day.  Therefore, in case I was not in a good state or my stamina was not reversed enough, in my original plan, I just needed to finish the first 16km by running in approximate 90 minutes, and left the rest 5km to walk. Since the gate closing time was 3 hours, I was still able to complete the total 21km in time.

On that day, the start time was at 8am, in order to store enough energy and give a sufficient time to digest so that the stomach wouldn’t cause any problems, I got up early and had a healthy breakfast two hours before. My dad drove me to the starting point, and by the time we arrived, it was already crowded with participants. I found a place to do some warm-up and waited for the starting gun.

Finally, it begun. The running que was so long that it took me 5 minutes to reach to the starting point and my first half marathon was officially started. For the first 5km, it was not pleasant, because the street was jammed with people and when I passed some slow runners, it was difficult to keep myself at a constant pace. I strapped my phone around my arm and opened a running app to inform my speed through the headphone. This is critical, since it was a 21km run, if I ran fast in the first 5km, the last 5km could be miserable. This is my first time, I was not 100 percent sure of my stamina. Therefore, I had to steady my pace at the beginning, even though I could run faster.      

After I finished the warm-up 5 km, I can feel that I entered into a good state, in which I just immersed in running and had some extra mind to enjoy the surrounding scenery. However, something hateful showed up in the road ahead, a long slope. That damned endless incline not just made me slow a bit, more importantly, it ruined my mood, and I started to wonder if I can finish. Fortunately, I was not alone, I was accompanied by all participants, and running with others eased my concern, and help me through this difficult stage. After which, the happiest thing came, a long downhill. My quickest 1km was achieved in this downhill and during this period, I not just ran faster, but also effortless.

By the time I completed 16km, only 5km was ahead of me. Actually, that original walking plan was in case of the worst scenario, what I really wanted was to finish within 2 hours, and so far, all went well. I thought I had saved enough strength for the final 5km. Therefore, I decided to accelerate. Unfortunately, this happened to be the worst decision. After a faster 2km, I realized I was overconfident and I can’t maintain this speed to the end. Worse, since I sprinted earlier, I was running out of power, resulted in the last 3km was not just the slowest, it was a miserable, painful, and suffering journey. Nonetheless, I kept running to the end, and there was no walking during the whole 21km.  

Eventually, I crossed the line. But unfortunately, with the 2:01:37 finishing time, I didn’t achieve my target. Anyway, it was a good experience, and I was thinking of attending more half marathon in the future. Besides, a new aim was set, finishing a full marathon in 2 years.