Anenii Noi - Chisinau - Half Marathon dress rehearsal!

This Sunday (9/29/13) Sporter.md team conquered distance between Anenii Noi and Chisinau. Thanks to sporter.md for this (and hopefully the other) running event and and sportive initiative in general!

This run opens series of runs "From somewhere near Chisinau to Chisinau" :).



Full distance from the center of Anenii-Noi to Chisinau is 30к. We've spitted in 3 groups:

• 30к runners
• Half-marathon runners
• 10+ км.

I was in half-marathon group. Taking in consideration half-marathon in Bucharest (10/06/13) I was registered for, this run was perfect repetition. I must say the conclusions I did exceed my expectations and I was happy to get this experience before official competitions.

The first 21k of the whole distance were quite flat, so we could keep the same pace. I was pleased by my results. Sorry for the immodesty, but this day I became a new personal-record-holder. Here are my results:

Conclusions:

• I can do half-marathon :). As it was my first run >15к, It was important to finish it, rather than to do it fast.
• Joints are the weakest link. During all distance I felt well, average heart-rate was around 150 and I could easily keep talking with another runners during all the race. The mood was spoiled only by the evening after race, when I felt easy pain in joints. Yes, they where remembering about themselves during the race too, but only for few minutes. After the race those feelings stayed longer. I understood that this kind of pain is something normal and expected after such loads, but I have competitions in a week! Hope I'll manage to restore before Sunday and won't have issues there. For that I have to: 
• loose some weight in order to decrease load to joints, 
• make them stronger by doing exercises and getting vitamins, 
• for the future - slooooowly increase distance, despite the fact that there were no big load on heart and breathing.
• I have to buy another peer of good running shoes. Up till now I was happy with my Adidas. They are good enough for short workouts, but not for half- or full-marathon. Blisters and awful feelings - this is what was waiting for me after 17k... As result, I finished the race with 5 blisters and strong desire to buy another peer of shoes, which will keep doing their good job till the end of any run.
• It is better to have food and drink with you, and to have where to have them :). Let me explain :). Basing on Dmitri Volosin's story (he is the only marathon runner I know) morning before the race I started with sweet spaghetti. For the race I had with me the same cookies I had on my 15k and a bottle of mineral water (you need it in order to restore balance of minerals in your body after continuous sweating). In order to make this water even more useful I added there honey and lemon juice (Mmmmm, it was the best recovery drink I have ever tried). Ok, I could easily put cookies in the pocket, but what should I do with water? That's why I said "...you have to have where to have them". More prepared guys have special belts with small bottles for water and place for food as well. I have to buy this stuff too.
• It is good to have some money with you :). Of course, all organizational details were discussed many times, but, as you already know, we had different pace and run different distances. Race finished in different time and place for all of us and it was hard to pick up all. Even harder would be to wait for the car after you are done. So, after 20 min of waiting I decided to get a juice in the nearest gas station and take a bus to the Chisinau. Price is more than "affordable" :), around - 5 lei (40 US cents). In ten minutes I was waiting for the other guys together with 4 more runners, discussing our fresh emotions and and drinking hot tea.

I'm happy with the results of my first HM race and surely will participate in the following races. My new goal is to improve my result on the HM in Bucharest, I've got some experience I could use for it.

And I'd like to finalize with the fact that Triathlon turned to be much more interesting than I used to believe. It is new small world you become part of, along with family and work, and it starts adding colors in your grey weekdays. Yes, sometimes it is hard to live in all those worlds in parallel, but it definitely worth trying!

Русская версия.