🏃♂️ First Official Race: A Trail Adventure
In Short: It was tough. Sometimes extremely tough. But no injuries. The experience was invaluable, with important key lessons learned. Now, I have a clearer understanding of what needs to be done in the next race.
In Detail: Starting out, it was a 10 km trail race, and fortunately, I knew what await us as because i trained on a similar route one week ago. So, I had idea of the difficulty level.
The race began without any pace groups. I found myself running at the pace of the group rather than my own, which led to breathlessness right from the first uphill.
I managed to hold on until the 5 km pit stop. Water and a few seconds to catch my breath helped, and I started to find my rhythm. However, the narrow forest path and the varied paces of other runners made it difficult to maintain a steady pace.
Next pit stop at 7.5 km. Finally, I was able to find my pacemaker, and we ran together until the end.
10 km. The finish line. I collapsed on the grass, forgetting everything else.
Takeaways:
- Know your pace and stick to it, no matter what.
- Follow your own rhythm, there’s no need to play the hero and burn out halfway.
I’m not going to talk about my pace, time, or position in the rankings because that’s not what this was about. It was more about meeting personal goals. I wanted to complete my first official race, and I did it.
Even after two cases Achilles strain that forced me to restart twice, and constant questions to yourself "Is it worth it?".
But in the end, it’s done.
Am I satisfied?
Absolutely.