Find your reason

The HBF run went alright, all things considered.

The final time was 45'00", way below expectations. After a fast first km (3'20, partly downhill), I settled with a couple of people (including a surprisingly determined 12-year old, who will eventually cross the finish line a good 30secs ahead of me) traveling at 3.35/km. I thought this was quite ambitious, but the legs were feeling good, and I didn't want to lose this group and end up running on my own. I still don't know if I made a good decision, or perhaps I should have aimed to run at a steady 3.40 per km.

Anyway, when the going got tough, I didn't get going, for the lack of significant training showed up. At around km 4, my shoe got untied! What a novice!! I was so worried at the start about stretching and checking my dodgy calves, that I forgot to tighten up my shoes...  Luckily, I managed to cover almost the entire distance with flapping shoelaces, without tripping.

I began to suffer a lot by km 8 (still run at 3.41), and lost contact with my group. One thing that sucks about this race is that the 12km run merges with the half marathon pretty soon (at km 2), which condemns you to a never-ending slalom around and between much slower (and tired..) runners, who have been on their legs for an extra hour. I don't know how much that added to the final distance, but it certainly made a difference.

I eventually dragged myself over the last 3km at 3.50 pace. I don't know if a calmer start would have made things different, but I like to think that it would and that, without all the zig-zags, I would have hit the 44 mins benchmark as planned.

The next day, I celebrated by buying a new pair of shoes, the Mizuno Wave Rider 21. I went for a run yesterday (legs in pieces) and today (legs in semi-pieces), and they feel great. I wasn't comfortable doing more kms on my Nike Zoom Air Pegasus 34, which are still amazing but I will keep for the quicker work. So the morale is good, and the will to do is still there.

Let's see what happens now.

Edit: The official race website put me at an average pace of 3.41/km. Many people on the FB page have complained about race measurements, claiming that while the half marathon was certified, the 12km wasn't and in fact it was about 1/2 km longer. I don't how credible this all is, but I like it!