So I have finished my first race ever today (http://bratislavamarathon.com/en/home.html). It was 1/2 marathon which took place in Bratislava (capital of our country and place where I currently live). 

I was a little scared as I ran little whole weak and was not sure how it would feel. On saturday I just ran a short run to see how it felt and suprisingly feeling was better than great so I hoped the feeling would be the same during the race.

In the morning before the race I tried to get as much carbs in my body as possible. I was aware of the fact that the race would last about 2 hours so I do not need to eat a few thousand calories but I supposed some more would be handy during the race. So I had slice of bread (whole wheat) with cheese, 2 bananas and cup of orange juice with about 40g of glucose in it. About 20 minutes before the race I ate another about 20g of glucose and 1 carbo gel (90 kcal) and drank some water too (about 1/2 litre). 

 I was not very nervous just curious about the race atmospehere and all stuff I had just read about so far. We (me and my 3other friends which run the 1/2 marathon too) stood in the end of 2nd 1/3 of pack.  As there were about 7500 runners, after the start, we had to walk for another about 3 minutes to get to starting line and start running. 

First 3 kilometres I held with my friends. I felt great although when I looked at my HR monitor my HR was about 181. I was like "what the hell I should slow down despite I feel well as I am not supposed to make 2 hours tempo run of this and I was supposed to be at about 162 bpm." So I let the guys go and slowed down a little bit. However my HR stayed high and it was problem to get it under 180. After some time during which I was passed by guys that could have been my grandparents I just said to myself "f..k the HR. I will focus on feeling and rely on my body saying me when to push and when to slow." So I continued runnning at about 181 -183 bpm and felt very well. I kept my average pace at about 6:10/km and hoped I would be able to at least hold it for the whole race. I drank at every refreshment area (although I was not thirsty) and at 7th km I took first gel (90 kcal). I made 10km in 1:03:00 exactly (according to my watch) which is basicaly my best 10k time ever :D and felt very well. Until that I was somewhere at the beginning of the 3rd 1/3 of the pack. After passing 10k mark I tried to push harder started passing some people. I felt still great and not tired at all. I kept drinking at every refreshemnt area, took 2nd gel at 14th km and kept passing people until maybe 17th km, still at HR up to 183. At 17th km something "broke" inside me  and I started to feel weak nad my legs felt stiff. My HR went down to about 176 and I felt it was going to hurt. The last 4km hurt like hell but I managed not to walk (ran everything even the last uphill at 18th km) and finished in 2:13:50 (official time 2:16:41 - which was counted from the start - it included the 3minutes of walking at the beginning) 1477th overall 1063th in my category (main "man" category - years 1973 - 1994).

Overall my feelings are good although I hoped for about 10 minutes better time. I think I should have taken one more gel (the weaknes at 17th km felt like when I was underfueled during training) although my time would not have been much better (imo not even a minute) but I would feel better running those last 4 km.

Anyway I am looking forward to another race.