Race Post Mortem

I'm in recovery mode now. Everything feels sore and I can't remember the last time that I ran a half and felt so sore afterwards... Maybe like with childbirth, (as they say) I've forgotten the post-run pains and only remember the highs. (*eyeroll)

The race is done, which means its time to dig up the race pics from online and also do a deep-dive into the results.

So theres mine! Its not bad I suppose - 35/79 of all veteran women (sigh! yes now I'm running in the veteran category) and 85/182 of all women. I'm just above average. 

In general though, the top timings across all categories are simply amazing. Below is the top 5 times in the Veteran Women category. Even if I had run at my personal best time of 2:16, I would have been at rank#14. There was a time when I used to make it to the top 10 timings without so much of a gap between the top time and mine. It feels like everyone has gotten faster and I've gotten slower. (Thats probably very true)

What is more dismaying however is that the top 13 times in the senior veteran category also beats my timing! 

Its always when I see the results that I wish I'd done more during the race and training. But this is a bad rabbit hole to go down. So I desist.

Back to me. 2:43:19 is reasonable considering that I was running after a giant gap of 7 years. The biggest setback for me was poor sleep the night before the race and the previous night as well. But the highpoint is that I finished strong with no injuries despite the lack of sleep and not enough of warming up. I am also about 7 kilos heavier than I was 7 years back, which is definitely a contributing factor to speed but also a contributing factor to some problematic chafing which has lead to some significant post-run discomfort.

I plan to build up from here. Consistency is key (as I've been telling myself all these years but not following it) and I'm hoping I will continue training without losing this momentum. More speed work and tempo runs to be incorporated into my weekly routines to improve anaerobic capacity and as always, improved strength training workouts. I do need to drop some weight. But thats not a key focus for me, I'm guessing it will happen organically as a side effect to more consistent strength training.

I haven't signed up for any new races as yet so I'm not sure when this blog will get updated next. But hopefully it will be sooner than later.