2024 Grand Rapids Half Marathon
I ran a half marathon!
On October 21 2023, I reached my goal of 100lbs lost. The very next day, October 22nd, I started running. I had run a 5K race when I reached 50lbs lost, so my initial goal was to run a 10K to celebrate 100lbs. But it was a long winter and my ambitions are boundless 😉 so I set my sights on the Amway Riverbank Run 25K (15.5 miles) in May 2024. Unfortunately, I had underestimated the fitness level required to do that kind of race! I suffered through injuries basically every 4-5 weeks that knocked me out of my training and ultimately kept me from my 25K goal. But it did re-center me on a 10K, which I ran TWO of in the spring!
A good friend of mine from college is a pro Ironman triathlete, so I asked him for some help. He coached me the entire way on my 19-week training program to reach the 13.1 mile distance at the Grand Rapids Marathon in October.
And on October 20th 2024, one day shy of the one year anniversary of reaching my weight loss goal, I completed my first half marathon!
I ran the distance in 2 hours and 24 minutes, which was exactly my goal. This is a pace around 11:00/mi which was exactly my goal. My plan was to follow the 11:00 pacer, but that group ended up running a 10:25 instead, which was too fast for me, so I ended up running solo for a good portion of the race. The day started off cold, in the low 40F range, but quickly warmed up. Before race day, I had only ever run up to 10 miles at once due to some injury issues in the last few weeks of training. After I hit that point, things started getting pretty rough. My right knee hurt, my right hip hurt, my left quad was dead. Much of the race course was on a severe angle, meaning one side had to work a lot harder to keep steady, and that wrecked my legs. Mile 11 I ended up walking a short bit, and mile 12 I ended up walking a lot.
Coming around to the finish line, I had a bunch of friends and family waiting for me! My friend and coach was waiting for me at mile 8 and again about 1/4 mile before the finish line, and a bunch of family met me right at the finish. I. Was. WRECKED. Barely standing, legs shaking, head fuzzy. We had planned to go to breakfast but I was fading fast so we grabbed McDonalds and went home for a long nap 😄
What Next?
I have another half marathon on the calendar with a friend in Helsinki Finland. I can’t wait, that’s going to be a blast! But after that, I’m thinking of pulling it back. I enjoyed the race but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. If I had to rank my favorite race distances, I’d say…
10K >> 10 Mile > Half Marathon >>>>> 5K
I think the biggest reason for that is twofold: 1) This training cycle was SO LONG and 2) I’m just out there on the course for a long time. My goal in 2025 post-Helsinki is to focus more on 5K/10K. I don’t love 5Ks because they’re so fast it actually hurts. 3 miles hurts more than 13 miles. But I’d like to race more, and I’d like to race faster, and I’d like to train less. My hope is if I focus on speed for a bit, I can get my 13.1 time down under 2 hours. That would see me running a 25 minute 5K and a 53 minute 10K so we’ll see how well that goes 🤣
