Helsinki City Run

Last saturday I took part in the Helsinki City Run, the biggest half marathon in Finland. For those of you that doesn’t know it, an half marathon is a 21.1km running-race.

I didn’t reach my primary goal: cross the finish line with a time between 1h40min40sec and 1h42min30sec. But second goal was satisfied: I was the 700 crossing the finish line on over 8000thousand partecipants .
Final time: 1:44:17

But to be honest I’m really satisfied and I had lot of fun. It was the first I took part in a official half marathon competition and yeah, as a first time I can’t complain

Thanks

I would like to take my friends, met during the route. Johanna, she was waiting for me in Töölölahti during the very first kms before going to work. Then Jere and Stippe, unespected, met around the 6th km. And Oliver, he followed me in different part of the race taking really beautiful pictures. And last Kaarina, she came to the Olympic Stadium but at the end we didn’t manage to meet.
And of course I need to thanks Pigi that re-introduced me one year ago to the magical world of running and Roberto Albanesi, we never met but I consider him my virtual  personal trainer.

Race Analysis

A short analysis about the reasons why I couldn’t make it to reach the goal I had when I started training.

In Italy, because of the training on hard condition, I injured my self on the right knee. So I had to skip 15days of training, all the central and most important part of my program. Now I will rest untill June, hoping that the knee will recover 100%.

The day before the race and the same morning I had some stomach problem. And even during the race I was suffering about it a little bit.

I didn’t sleep enough the week before the race. Tention before the race but also my fault, I should have focused better on sleeping more.

During the race I followed a good strategy. I was very concentrated and focused on the race the morning. Then I made a good warm up. I started slowly, without following the crowd that started really fast.
Half of the race my time was 51:31, perfect. The point is that I didn’t make to do the perfect second half. I run a bit slower the second part (52:57), maybe more for mental problem than phisical problems. The last meters in the Olympic Stadium I had a great sprint, so probably I didn’t use my energies properly during the race. I think I underestimate me cause I was worried not to be able to finish it. I had 2 small crysis but I managed to run the all time. Slowest km was the one between 17 and 18 (pease 5:16min/km), also because of a long really hard hill. Fastes km was the one between 12/13 (peace 4:38 min/km)

Two more aspects to consider: weather and my ipod.
Min temperature was 20degrees celtius, max temp 22celtius. It was hot, really hot, the all time. After training the all winter with the snow I wasn’t expecting this kind of weather but I manages anyway without suffering too much and my drinking strategy worked quite well (I drunk a bit at every stop but alwasy keeping on running).

About the music, no excuses: after few kms my ipod’s battery was empty. I spent an entire day creating the perfect half marathon playlist. Plus I couldn’t believe the battery was empty, cause the ipod was charged, so I tried couple of times to make the ipod work again and I think I lost couple of minutes + I wasn’t mentally focused on the race.

Km  Time
—————————
1     0:04:46   
2     0:09:34
3     0:14:30
4     0:19:22
5     0:24:19
6     0:29:16
7     0:34:11
8     0:38:54
9     0:43:57
10   0:48:50
11   0:53:47
12   0:58:36
13   1:03:14
14   1:08:12
15   1:13:18
16   1:18:27
17   1:23:27
18   1:28:43
19   1:33:54
20   1:38:55
21   1:43:55
21.1 1:44:23

Goal: 4:46/4:51
Real average peace: 4.56

Pictures are on my facebook account