Run is DONE 09/09/12

So I completed the half marathon today!

BUT I did not achieve the time goal I was hoping for :(

I wanted to finish in under 2:15 but ended up taking 2:32. I believe there are a few factors which resulted in me not achieving my time goal these are:

-Did not train frequently enough. Although I had a good training programme I was unable to stick to it precisely due to major blisters and unexpected travel. I also became ill in the last week of training which did not help at all!! 

-Inaccurate training. I was measuring my training runs through my Nike+ app on my Ipod which measures distance and time. Unfortunately I only discovered today when comparing my Ipod to the course markers, that my Nike+ app is not accurate and I had been running shorter distances than I thought I had. This had quite a negative impact on me psychologically during the race because I  felt like I was not prepared to run the full distance as my training runs which were already difficult enough were not even the distance I thought they were. 

-Heat. While it now seems rather silly of me, I only ever trained in the afternoons when it was cooler as I find running in the sun much more difficult. Obviously today I had to run in the morning and it happened to be quite sunny during the event so this was a condition I was not used to. I found myself very hot and thirsty during the marathon.

Giving up- To be honest I pretty much gave up on the second half of the race. I was not in a good mind set and began to walk every now and then. This completely ruined my motivation and resulted in me not achieving my goal.

I am very disappointed in myself for not achieving my goal. I feel good that I have completed another half marathon but I would be much happier if I had achieved my time goal. I take full responsibly for this though as I believe my goal was realistic and achievable I just needed to work harder for it. I will most likely give it another go next year and hopefully I can cut my time down!