Having recently completed  my first half marathon in May (the Huntly Half Marathon), I’m feeling like  an old pro! In hindsight I am actually quite happy with my out come from the Huntly half marathon, which I managed to complete 2 hours 14 minutes and 55 seconds .

If you havn’t run the Hunlty Half Marathon I would highly recommend it, because it's flat...dead flat. 

One thing I did learn however, is that not all kilometers are created equal. The first 17 kms of the run fell away with relative ease but after that things started to get difficult. I was already on about my ‘4th wind’ of the day and was assuming there was another one around the corner which unfortunately didn’t arrive.  The 19th km was particularly excruciating as I had well and truly hit ‘the wall’ , my legs felt like lead and I was experiencing  some strong nauseous urges.

But after telling myself  ‘Arthur Lydiard never puked on the streets of Huntly,  Pete, so neither are you’ I managed to hold it together and eclipse the 21kms with a time of 2 hours 14 minutes and 55 seconds. ( I may have been passed by walker on the home straight but that’s neither here nor there in the scheme of things!)  

The highlight of the day was definitely the atmosphere. Having trained by myself for the majority of the 12 weeks, running with over 2000 people was an amazing sensation.

Over the next 8 weeks I will be fine tuning my training in the lead up the Taupo half marathon in an attempt to better my previous time and hopefully run a  sub-two hour half marathon. I will keep you up to date with my progress and let you know how to get the most out of your half marathon training.