Sunday, March 17, 2013

2 miles and Half Marathon.

On the last weekend of February I was in Banja Luka and though the weather was cold and icy I decided to run a 2 mile race on the track at the Borac stadium. I didn't feel that great so my plan was to run easily and steadily. My time of 18:27 was of course quite slow, but was just what I wanted the week before my Half Marathon in Nis, Serbia.
March 3 was  the Winter Marathon in Nis, Serbia. On Friday before I left for Serbia I had a little stomach upset but by Sunday morning it seemed fine. The start was cool but sunny and it got warmer as the race went on. I ran nice and steady at around a 9 minute per mile pace and felt quite comfortable.Then between 8 and 10km I started to feel a little uneasy in my stomach, this prompted me to take a trip to the toilet which took about 5 minutes or so. After this break I felt much better, however, over the last 3km I started to feel some cramping in my right calf and the end of my race was a case of me not being able to push as I usually would do. I think this was a combination of some salts lost in my toilet visit and not taking enough fluids later to replace them . My time of 2:32:37 was about 5 minutes slower than last year, but once again my aim is to spend a good deal of time on my legs at this time of year. This has been my training plan for the last 3 years.
Mainly though the race is well organized and it is nice to participate in it each year.

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