KYIV half marathon 2015 - first experience

Automatic pic. that was taken by the sponsors about 2 min. after the start.

OK, finally this has happened!! After about 10 month of preparation I have ran my first even half marathon. It was not only my first official half marathon, but also first time ever in my life when I have run such a distance (21 km)... I have meant to try running at least 18-20 km in my training, but for various reasons it has never happened. The longest run I have had was - 15 km. So, needless to say that to run a 21+ km was quite hard.

Everything went pretty well for me up untill about 16th kilometer. That's when I REALLY started feeling my legs and even had to start walking time aftre time (especially on steep hills) in order to restore some of my strengh. Now, as I think of it I also probably needed to tie my running shoes less, because especially my right foot felt quite stiff on the second part of the run. Conclusion? Pay attention even to how you tie your shoes when running on long distances... :-)