Until the beginning of March, all my runs had been up to 8 km, except a single run: during the Christmas of 2013 I had a 10 km run which I completed in exactly 1 hour. At this point I was training three times a week at Barry's Bootcamp, and not really running much outdoors since it was winter (and I had not yet discovered the pleasures of headlamp running). In January I had a long break from running and training due being down with the flu (the second one I ever had) for almost three weeks. In February I was back at Bootcamp, getting slowly back in shape. And in March I started the longer runs, at the same time as I started with weekly personal training sessions. Thanks to the fact that I sent an email to my trainer Ketil after every new running achievement, I have an accurate log of the runs up to my first half marathon.
March 2: 12 km, 4 rounds around Store Lungegårdsvannet, 1h 20min. This went much more easily than expected.
March 4: 15 km, 5 rounds around Store Lungegårdsvannet, 1h 28 min. My goal was to complete this below 1:30 so I was very happy. But I was completely exhausted at the end, and it felt like I could not run a meter longer. At this run, I was surprised to realize that appropriate clothing is really important for longer runs. The underwear I had been using and had been happy with until then turned out to be completely useless for longer runs. My sports bra had metal parts for adjustment at the back, and I got sores from these. In addition, my panties cut into the skin between the legs, which became quite painful towards the end of the run. After a bit of trying and failing, I found my favorites which I nowadays rarely deviate from: Casall iconic sports bra and Craft cool boxer mesh for women.
March 12: 16 km, one round at Lungegårdsvannet, then up to Svartediket until the end, then back and down at Lungegårdsvannet. This was a tougher course with a lot of uphill, and it took me a bit longer than expected: 1h 40 min. New surprise: I started realizing that had no desire for food after such long and hard runs! I found this a very amusing advantage of long distance running, but of course I had to force myself to eat to make sure to recover. Unfortunately, as my form got better and I got used to longer runs, this effect has disappeared...
March 26: 18 km, similar course as the last run; the extra 2 km were at Lungegårdsvannet. I was more happy with the time of this run: 1h 50 min. At this point, I decided to sign up for Bergen City half Marathon, which was exactly one month ahead in time! My husband Frank and my youngest son Aksel had already signed up, so we could now make an almost complete family team. (Our other son was in the north of Norway doing his military service, so his participation was out of the question.)
March 29: Form test: 10 km around Lungegårdsvannet: 56 min. Very happy to beat my former 10 km time by 4 minutes!
April 4: 21 km!! Frank and I started from Nattlandsfjellet, and ran all the way to the end of Fjellveien (Munkebotn) and back, via Kolstien, Sollien and Ulriksdal. The course includes a very steep hill between Ulriksbanen and Sollien, which was uphill and very tough on the way back. We calculated the distance so that the 21 km ended at the bottom of Nattlandsfjellet, and not with yet another tough uphill. I completed this run in 2h 12min, which gave me the hope that I could do Bergen City in about 2 hours.
In between and after the above runs, I regularly had some Bootcamp classes, some mountain hikes, and a few more runs between 10-15 km. Most importantly, I had weekly personal training sessions with Ketil, which were particularly designed for the goal of long distance running and strengthening the appropriate muscles for his. I cannot describe how useful these sessions were during this time, not to mention all the encouraging feedback I got from Ketil after every report about the above runs. I truly believe that the PT sessions were decisive in that I managed to increase my mileage so quickly and easily.
April 18: Form test: 10 km, around Lungegårdsvannet: 54 min. I was ecstatic about this achievement, and I felt so ready for the race which was only 8 days ahead in time.
In the evening of this last run I got sick, and I had to stay in bed with fewer for three days. I was extremely worried about the race, whether I would recover in time, and whether I was losing valuable training time. During these days, I read a lot about the subject, and I got many encouraging and soothing emails and messages from Ketil, which helped me stay calm. Three days before the race, I felt well enough to do a test run around Lungegårdsvannet: 12 km consisting of 3 km slow, 3 km faster, 3 km fast, and 3 km slow. After this, I rested for the last two days before the race. In the end, I am convinced that becoming sick was the best thing that could happen to me before the race. If it were not for this, I would have continued to run during the last week, which I now know would be a mistake. The fact that I had to stay in bed gave me perfectly rested legs, and I was fortunate enough to recover completely the day before the race. I could not have been luckier!
April 26: Finally the race day!!! I completed the race in 2 hours exactly, and I was extremely happy both with the time and with the experience. It was such a great sunny day in Bergen, and the setting was incredible. Everybody was so nice and kind to each other, both before and during the race, and I was so grateful and proud to be part of such an amazing organization. I posted on Facebook that day that the experience was "out of this world". It really was!
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