038 ☼ Maybe thats not for me

After-race-depression?

Welcome to my email newsletter 'Never not [thinking about] running' - a weekly newsletter about running and mental health. If you haven't subscribed yet and you're not sure whether you really want to receive an e-mail from me on every Tuesday, have a look at the archive. Todays newsletter is more or less a race-report and my thoughts on competing longer distances.

Phew. Guys. I'm tired. Really, really tired. Not "I didn't get much sleep last night" tired, but more "I need to put some more wood on the stove" tired or I'm burning out. The half marathon last Friday is probably one of the reasons. At least it could be. More on that later.

Going into a race fully recovered?

Let's start with last week. At the beginning of the week I had problems in my right thigh. I had been training a lot in the weeks before, running a lot of miles, some interval work, but I didn't feel like there was a trigger for the problems in my thigh. I assumed it was a hardened muscle because whenever I went running, my thigh would relax. Nevertheless, I only ran on Monday and put my feet up until the day of the race on Friday.

To be honest, I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to run, but everything felt okay on Friday. At least in such a way that I didn't expect anything to get worse.

Pre-race-anxiety

I was relatively excited because the last race had gone pretty badly. Today's final time for the 21k was supposed to be the same pace as my botched 10K race two and a half weeks earlier. I couldn't really imagine that yet. I was worried that I would just shatter into pieces again during the run, which is really not a nice feeling, especially when you run so long and don't want to just stop in between. The "walk of shame" is a much longer route than on a 10k run, which consists of four 2.5k laps.

But that wasn't going to happen. I had planned to start with a 4:00min/k pace and then see where the journey took me. Up to kilometer 15, it went very well. Depending on the terrain, I was sometimes under and sometimes over. But then came the most difficult part of the course, slightly uphill, exposed to the wind and that really pushed me to my limits. It has to be said that I had company from kilometer 8 onwards in the person of a much better runner, but he was only doing a training run today.

Trying to find my pace

He had already run to the front before, then back to his girlfriend and now he joined me because my target time was also about his. We chatted from time to time, which was also a sign for me that I was in a good shape, but as I said, at kilometer 16 it became too much. I had to let go. However, I wasn't the only one who had problems. There had been a runner in front of me who had probably gained a minute on the first part of the course on me, but I was now making up ground on him bit by bit, even though I was struggling myself.

I caught up with him at some point, but I knew that there were also runners coming up behind me, so I was caught right before the finish by a different runner, I stayed on his heels and was finally able to leave him behind me again in the final sprint. 7th place, new PB. You can see it here. I was satisfied.

Halfmarathon vs. 5K

Nevertheless, a half marathon feels more than strange for a runner coming from the 5K. While in a 5K race you go straight to your limits without any detours, which you can endure for 15-20 minutes, a half marathon is somehow completely different. Running at a speed at the beginning that doesn't really push you yet feels strange. Being able to assess whether this is the right pace is a feat in itself. For me. Probably not for experienced runners.

Just as I had to learn not to overpace on the 5K, the same applies to the half marathon, but at a completely different pace. What I more than appreciate about this experience is that you become a more complete runner. You learn something new. You expand your running repertoire and I have to say that I've missed that in recent years. This is also reflected in my training. Although I've run a lot more kilometers in previous years, this year I've done significantly more runs over 20K. Just for comparison. In 2023, I completed a total of 14 of them. 2024 already 17.

Broadening the horizon

And I think that will also help me on the 5K at the end of the summer. Nevertheless, I still have doubts as to whether such long distances are really the thing for me. As I said, I'm tired, my thigh is also better, but overall it takes much more time to recover after a half marathon than after a 5K race. There it was more a case of competing next week or the week after.

Nevertheless, I have planned my next half marathon for the end of August and a 28K race two weeks later. Let's see if that makes sense - right now I think it makes more sense to cancel a race. I'll let it sink in for now and see how the next few weeks develop. For now, I'm happy about a new PB, a good minute faster than my previous one. 4 minutes faster than at the race in the spring, and all this in the knowledge that there is still more potential.

“Me elsewhere!”

Last week I was a guest on

Craig Lewis

' podcast. The first twenty minutes were exhausting for me. I keep realizing that my spoken English still lags far behind my written English. But after twenty minutes I was fine. So just fast forward.

The end

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