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First half-marathon down! Final chip time was under two hours (!) on a beautiful race in Vancouver.

About 9 months ago I wrote:

After finishing my first 10K race last year, I decided to sign-up for a half marathon training program with a local group, targetting the Vancouver BMO Half Marathon.

The training program began in January with a "benchmark 5K" just to gauge our current pace/ability. Before this I was so used to running by myself. In the benchmark run I organically ended up running two other people and we each were subtly and slowly pushing each other to run a little faster, a little faster. I ended up running that first benchmark 5K in 26:01 which was literally 2 minutes faster than any 5K distance I had ever run before. It was a realization that running with other people can really push you to run harder than you normally would.

The training program was 16 weeks, with two runs by yourself each week, one "harder" run with the training group (usually at a track), and one less intense longer run. The longer runs got longer every week. Almost every weekend I was running these longer runs and realizing each of them was the longest run I'd ever run, which always felt cool. Somewhere near the end of the program when I started running 10+ miles in a run, I think my mind changed from "half marathon sounds so difficult" to "Yeah, that's hard but possible".

We had a final 5K run to compare to the one at the start of the program. I ended up running 24:10 (7:48/mile), which really surprised even myself. I'm not fast, but I felt like all the practice had paid off.

The Race

My goal going into the half marathon was originally "just finish, don't walk, don't feel like I'm dying at the end". The race itself had beautiful weather, was early enough in the morning to avoid heat, and the route was great. We went through the city, Chinatown, through Stanley Park, and into an awesome finish line with people cheering all around you. Vancouver as a city really comes out for this event, which I really appreciated. I had a good mix of music to help me (a lot of high energy Prodigy, NIN, DnB, and a few slower things to give my brain a break). I remember the last kilometer was me realizing not only was I going to finish, I was going to get sub-2 hour which was a kind of stretch goal. I really gave this everything I had.

Am I a runner now?

I think running is still 'hard work' and whether I want to do it really depends on the day. What is different now is that I feel like I'm not terrible at it. I was faster than half of all participants at the race (no matter the gender/age group), and I'm sure plenty of these people really enjoy running. Maybe I can phrase it this way. I think the Vancouver race gave me two things:

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The validation to feel like I should not feel embarassed for not being like a great runner at this point in my life
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Showing up and doing the work for 16 weeks, you will get better. Trust the process, push a little more each time: You will slowly become more than you thought you could. Everyone has heard this a million times, but experiencing it is important.

I don't know if I'm a runner now, but I'm not embarassed to run anymore.

And next?

I'm really happy I did the training program. It was an amazing community, coaches, everything. I think this summer I want to focus more on climbing and other hobbies. Come Fall/winter though I will likely pick this back up. I certainly want to train for another half marathon again within the next year. Perhaps after that I can answer the question of whether I want to do a full marathon someday.