I officially completed my first-ever half marathon at Ras Al-Khaimah Dubai, the flattest and fastest half marathon in the world,
Wow, what an incredible experience it was…
I did it I run myself half marathon, it was my first experience taking part in a huge event, also I had my 6-month-old son there cheering me on. I get to spend quality time with my incredible husband who is super supportive. I get no sleep having a small baby alone for the ride
let’s Dive In into more details shall we
A night before the half marathon we decided to book a hotel very near where the event took place, before this I didn’t know how I was going to get to the event, as I didn’t want to get up at 3:00 a.m. to head down on race day, I knew those extra hours would help during race time so my husband said let’s all go and make a weekend of it and stay the night at the hotel, immediately I relaxed a little, we had it down next day backed all that I could think of that was needed for the event and not stay we arrived at the hotel to only find I had booked a single room, which was not ideal with the two of us and the baby. The hotel could see was an error on my end, so they quickly helped and upgraded us to an apartment with no problem
We settled in our new spacious room and lay all my gear out ready to wake up to not have to do anything major and to feel ready in the morning. When I woke, we had some dinner I had pasta (was really good). I was trying to get higher carb dinner in ready for fuel for the run, showered, and finally, all went to bed.
The night sleep was one of the worst on my record for my son teething, unsettled wanting milk and nappy changed all the regular stuff also my head was running over time with excitement, and felt nervous about the unknown.
The alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. The race was to start at 6:30 a.m. I was definitely not ready to wake up with probably having 2 hours maximum sleep, but on the other hand, I was also fired up with excitement I’ll get ready and made sure I had what I needed, said bye, and gave a big kiss to my boys and had it to the start line.
I had my headphones in thinking I should stay in the zone but there was music playing and people in groups chatting it was really lively for 6:00 a.m. so I took my headphones out and soaked in the amazing atmosphere for a little bit…The event was really well organized from start to finish the stands, the sponsors, people cheering you on the vibes were great.
My goal with the run was to go for as long as I could without stopping, at this time this was around 5K, my idea was to break down the run into 4 stops to walk, grab s drink, and try to stay hydrated every 5K at the station and take an energy gel which may I add it.
I never tried them before, and they made me feel quite sicky and heavy in my stomach, I thought I should have tasted this beforehand but I knew they would do the job of keeping my energy system fueled up, so down they went every 5K.
I wished at that time I could have stuck to the game plan and achieved slow down paste at each 5K marker until I finish, except I did the first 5k straight, slowed down, had a drink, stopped for a pee, went onto reached 10K, I felt okay at that point. After the 13k marker, I started to feel my body slowing down, it was a walk every few minutes every 3, 5K continuous throughout the run, I’ll get to 19k thinking ”Oh my God” I only have one k left, to then realize it was another 2.5 k which don’t sound a lot and isn’t. But by that time, I was fatigued and never felt my body like this before, it was more my breathing and heart rate, I couldn’t get it back down but at this point, I knew it wasn’t long and I could do it.
I kept digging deep thinking in a few minutes I get to see my baby and husband cheering me over the finish line.
So, I kept running through… I could see the banner to the finish line, my heart was pounding like nothing ever before, and I felt sick and was struggling to catch my breath, I run and run, I crossed the line and I threw myself over the side into the floor to catch my breath, and there they were my hubby and son shouting yeah ”you did it well done”
It was very emotional, my heart rate slowly came down, it was surreal, I just achieved my goal, and I got my 2 favorites there cheering me on and fully supporting me.
I took my medal after I caught my breath, I immediately hurried to go closer to my family… there were barriers up for the race course, so we had to maneuver around, we made our way to the far end of the seaside path area… I found them walking toward me, my heart burst with happiness, we hugged took a few photos for memories, and started walking back to the hotel to get some breakfast and rest, by this point, it was 10:00 a.m… remember we are in the desert it was getting hot, we all enjoyed breakfast and had it to the pool of the hotel where we stayed to cool down and let the body recover
it was an amazing weekend I ran my first half marathon with my little family by my side I was so happy and proud we chilled all day ate well, then backed up and headed to the car for a 1.5-hour drive home.
So now what’s next I have crazily signed up for my first-ever Marathon, double what I did, now hard work starts … let’s go