First Race Under My Belt!!!

I ran my first race in Carmel CA on May 1st. The Big Sur 5K. I had set a goal of 40 minutes. Well my OH friends, I did indeed finish and ran it in 37:48. This was an awesome time for me. The trail was a little difficult since it had two major hills we ran up. Of course going down was a breeze. Anyhow, I had so much fun doing it and felt so good afterward that my friend and I are signing up for a half marathon in Aptos CA in August.  Any pointers for getting up to 13 miles would be appreciated. I'm currently running 2 1/2 - 3 miles twice a week.

Wish me luck!!


Some other stats:

Overall   477 out of 802
Women 40-44yrs   29 out of 55
Pace 12:10
Tag Time 37:48  Woo Hoo!!!

Congrats!!!

I went straight from a 5K to a 10-miler, so I know how excited you can be after your first race.  Keep the momentum going!

I followed this training plan for my last half marathon - and found it was pretty good for newer runners.

http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/novice.htm

Keep us posted on your progress and definitely follow the suggestions of fitting in some other races along the way to keep your training interesting!

-sue

Thanks for the link, Sue. I printed out the information and now i'm good to go!! Should be just about  14 weeks until the 1/2 so i have a small cushion to work with.

Awesome Job! and happy to hear about you developing such a healthy addiction.  I look forward to reports on your training and additional race reports.

Congrats on finishing the first race.

That's a great job.  Keep up the great attitude and you will do wonderful on that 1/2 marathon.

http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/novice.htm
There are free training programs here

My coach had me doing a set distance each week of 4 miles.  That distance was for speed.  He had me try to run it faster and faster each time.

I had another run that was between the 4 mile and my long run of the week.

My long run of the week increased by a mile or two each week.

So it looked like this, and progressed up to doing 12 miles before race week.
However I had a non running related injury and never got past the 8 mile long run distance.  Which was o.k. because it was enough.  I was able to run the full 13.1 and then 20 days later ran another one.

4 miles speed
4.5 miles steady
5 miles at comfortable pace

4 miles speed
5 miles steady
6 miles comfortable

4 miles speed
5-6 miles steady
7 miles comfortable

 awesome!  I used Hal's plan as well, although I modified it a bit to take an extra day off every week.  Congrats!

congrats on the race and PR!  and way to smash your goal!  i used a modified higdon's plan as well. i only run 3 days a week when i'm training for a longer distance running event to avoid overtraining/overuse injuries that i'm prone to.  best of luck!

Way to go! Glad you had a great time!

Congratulations. I had a friend at that race and she said it was really pretty. Maybe I'll have to do it next year. When is your race in Aptos? I might be looking for something in August. I'm doing Napa to Sonoma in July.

It gets addicting! Glad you had so much fun.
Jan

The race is the "Dirt Inspires" for women only. My friend has ran it before and she said it's really pretty. You run a fire trail through the mountains. It will be held on August 28.

here's the link if you want to check it out.

  http://www.terrischneider.net/ditrailruns/index.html


hope you can make it!