Background

This is an account of a half marathon I did on 01 Nov 2015.  I didn’t prepare for this run.  On top of this, my left foot ankle felt sore, and I put on a pair of shoes I’ve never used in a training run before (i.e. new pair of shoes).  It was Halloween the night before, and so I stayed up late–sleeping past midnight.

All these things didn’t align with running a 13.1 mile course.  In this article, I will share with you the result of this run.

The Result

I completed the run in 2 hours and 17 minutes (2:17:36 to be exact).

The weather was mild, but got hot after one hour of running.  My Nike Air Pegasus 30 actually held up well–meaning that it felt great and its newness was not a factor in my run.  As a matter of fact, it helped keep the soreness on my left foot and ankle under control.  It felt very comfortable, and it felt great over the varied terrain (concrete, asphalt, dirt, and gravel) the run presented.

My lack of training really kicked in at around mile 7.  There my pace started to leave the sub 10 minute pace and into the 10+ and 11+ range.

Below is my splits chart.  It has more pace data point and provides a visual on where things went south for me.  At point 1 below, my pace just started to go up almost linearly over distance and reached a plateau of 11:40 pace at around 11 miles.  Coincidentally, 5 miles was probably the longest distance I have run recently in my sparse running schedule.

Conclusion

The are three things you can conclude from my half marathon experience.

1. It is possible to get a new pair of shoes that would help reduce the effect of some form of injury on a run.  The injury wasn’t bothering me enough that I could not run.
2. Even without training for a half marathon, you can complete one.  Especially if you are in good heath.
3. Without training, your body isn’t tuned enough to handle the prolonged run.  In my case, my pace degraded after mile 5, and settled to a pace that I could maintain to the end.

If you think this was useful, let me know.  If you have had a similar experience, please share by commenting below.