So I ran my first half marathon a few weekends ago.

I followed this training program. I’ve never used a training program before a run before, so it was nice to have that “structured” feel. I felt prepared and somewhat confident when going into the race.

I ate a lot of spaghetti the night before (the “carbloading” that other runners know and love) but I had a problem – It didn’t come out the other end. 10 minutes before the race starts, I run to the port-a-potties in a desperate attempt to make a bowel movement. I knew that if I didn’t do this, I would have some serious problems during the race. I was able to make a little progress in there, but the run started while I was inside… Thank god for the race tags.

I didn’t have time to stretch – I ran right out of the port-a-potty and crossed the starting line.

I was in a bit of a panic, but after the first mile or so, I relaxed. I was, however, still a bit worried about the lack of stretching. I went through some weird pain during my training, and that was with a lot of stretching.

Anyway, I made it about 5 miles before I had to use another port-a-potty. I didn’t want to stop, but there was no way I was gonna be able to hold it in.

Back to the race! I felt like I had a pretty good pace going, and the running music I was rocking out to (The Disco Biscuits) was really helping – It matched my stride pretty well, and kept me thinking about the music as opposed to the bathroom or the pain in my knee that I was beginning to feel.

I think it was around mile 8 that the course turned around. I continued to slowly, but surely, pass people by.

By about mile 9, I was exhausted. The pain in my left knee became too much to ignore, and I seriously considered stopping to stretch. But I decided against it, I had to keep moving. I already made a “pit stop” and that was more time than I would have liked to waste.

By mile 12, I was really hurting. I knew that I shouldn’t continue running through this kind of pain, but I kept going. When you get close to the finish line, more and more people are lined up on the sides cheering you on. I knew I was close, and the adrenaline started kicking in. With about half a mile left, the adrenaline became almost too much to bear.

In the last 30 seconds of the race, I took off. I ran faster than I have in a long time, and I passed 10 people or so. It felt amazing. I finished in 1:57:49. I wanted to finish in under 2 hours, so I met that goal. I also limped around for the following week or so… I definitely put a hurting on my knees.

Anyway, I’m not sure if my knees just can’t handle that kind of distance, or if the lack of stretching is what did it. It may be a combination of the two. Either way, I’m gonna keep running. I don’t have anymore half marathons scheduled, but I’m more than willing to give it another shot.

Guest post by Kathleen Baker.

Regardless of your city’s location, if it is the site for any major marathon race, then chances are it will attract a large international audience. With many prominent runners hailing from African nations like Kenya and Ethiopia, there has been a recent influx of fast runners from Germany and Russia as well taking many of the top times. In these poorer African nations, however, youths see their distance running as a ticket to get out of these poverty-stricken areas so that they can succeed in something that comes naturally to them.

East Africa has long supplied many of the world’s top long-distance runners over the past years, though there still remains speculation as to why this has become such a true fact. Many believe this is because of the high altitude at which Kenyans and Ethiopians train, although these countries also have a robust running culture as well as highly trained regimes. The specific Kalenjin tribe in Kenya are only 12 percent of the population of the country although they make up 75 percent of the nation’s elite runners, growing from the onset Olympic victory of Kip Keino in 1968. This has thus inspired many Kalenjin youths to grow up and be like this hero of the tribe. Additionally, the fact that so many Kenyans and Ethiopians have witnessed their fellow citizens travel overseas and win thousands of dollars in marathon money has been a further encouragement to rigorously train in order to become the best at marathon running. This has led domestic competition to drastic levels in order to determine who is the best to compete internationally.

However, very few youths get the opportunity to leave their home nations and travel in order to compete in international marathons. This still remains a dream far out of reach for so many young people in these nations, especially Kenya, but they keep training in the 7,000 to 8,000 foot altitudes in order to build up an endurance. This change in altitude offers a form of training that is used around the world, but the Kalenjin tribe has learned to hone into this factor and train their runners specifically for distance. Many genetic tests have additionally been conducted to determine to what length physiology plays a role in the Kalenjin tribe’s accomplishments as runners. In 2000, the Danish Sports Science Institute concluded after their tests with a Danish runner that Kenyans have a born advantage due to their “birdlike legs”. Many Kenyans themselves view their running strength as a sign of their superior work ethic which allows them to work harder and reach goals that would otherwise seem unfathomable. While the true reason behind their superior running skills remains undetermined, the fact remains that across the world, Kenyans and on a smaller scale, Ethiopians, are still dominating the first place mark on many marathons without any sign of this letting up.

This post was contributed by Kathleen Baker, who writes about nursing schools. She welcomes your feedback at KathleenBaker3212 at gmail.com

Wow, I apologize for the bombardment of glucosamine posts on here. I had a bunch of posts scheduled for the past 2-3 weeks, and I didn’t realize that they were all on one subject… My bad.

I ended up doing the Philly Broad Street Run (last minute decision) and I’m so glad I did it. It was an awesome experience, running with all those people down roads that are normally full of traffic and etc. This was my first “official” 10 miler, and although I wasn’t prepared for it at all (as I said, this was a last minute decision) I think I did pretty well. I think my finishing time was 1 hour and 32 minutes.

My knees haven’t been giving me any problems since then, so I feel like I might be able to work my way up to a marathon. After that, it’s straight to the H.U.R.T 100 in Hawaii! Haha, right…

I have been doing the same hill workout for the past 4 or 5 weeks. This morning I was feeling good and I wanted to make things a little more challenging. I got the idea to add a tempo run to the end of my normal hill workout.

My usual hill workout has been a warm up of 1.5 miles. After the warm up run over to the hills begin to run the series of 12 hills. After the hill workout is finished I will cool down by running back to the start. The total workout is 7 miles.

This morning I warmed up and ran the hills as usual. After finishing the hills instead of cooling down I ran for 20 minutes at tempo pace. This made the total workout about 10 miles.

I must admit this workout is a lot tougher. I plan to rotate a ten mile tempo pace run with my new combination workout. My theory is that I will be able to keep the leg strength that I have gained and also improve my lactate threshold with this type of training too.

I have adapted this workout to my marathon training. This workout could also be adapted to different race distances. Runners training for a half marathon would have a great workout for finishing the race strong. By cutting the hill workout in half and still running the tempo pace portion runners could use this for 5 and 10k training.