Well done John you managed to complete it which is the major achievement. The 7 mile mark was probably more mental than physical as you have previously posted that you have only trained up to that distance.

I completed my first Half Marathon about 6 weeks ago in the first really hot weekend with a time of 1:39:40 followed by the next weekend a 10 miler in 1:11:50 which was slightly cooler.

My preparation was reasonably simple, be able to run the distance within a month of the event, I run 6 days and alternate those days with a hard and easy routine. The hard days would comprise of tempo runs or an easy paced long run which is your distance gauge. The easy days are what I term 'fillers' where you run at an easy pace but you can concentrate on your style and pace.

Above all training days should not be considered onerous and doing them for the sake of doing them as this will be the quickest way to fail and start skipping them. Your focus will be the Half Marathon and you will probably need to start upping your long run by no more than 1/2 mile each week until you get to the full distance of 13 miles (and beyond if you can).

My next half marathon is the Birmingham one at the end of October so my goal is to be running my long run at around 16 miles at the begining of October which gives me plenty of confidence in not only completing the distance but to add some pace to the end of it.

Hi All,

Well, I done it. My first 10 mile race. The New Forest 10. Started at 11.15 towards the back and everything was fine. I hit the 3 mile marker at 29.00 mins, which was a little slower than i wanted to but it was very hot so was happy with the pace. Carried on like that until the 7 mile mark when suddenly i felt like i just counldn't go on. No energy, hot and feeling rather weak. Decided to have a quick walk for maybe 30 seconds and that seemed to help, although it was a real struggle to the 9 mile mark and then after that i seemed to get a second wind and even managed a sprint over the line.
Excellent feeling to finish and with a time of 1hr 39min 11. A little slower than i wanted but never mind. I now have a goal for the next run, to finish in under 1hr 30.

Despite training in the heat i could not believe how it affected me on the day. Perhaps in need to up my training for my next race, which is the New Forest Half Marathon.

John