My running chronicles - experiences - learnings

I recently completed half marathon in a hilly terrain with a 350m elevation with a mild training of 1 month. Everything was going fine, my aerobic capacity actually increased and feeling much better than my previous half marathon. This time I was only feeling cramps when I hit heavy uphill - downhill combination for over a mile at Mile 9. I started cramping and understood it would only worsen as I go forward. I kept taking electrolytes, gels to provide help my body needed.

After a point, I started walking. I believed moving forward is important and not to stop. But my pace fell down drastically and I wanted to run, but I was cramping too much, I then set a convenient goal, I followed a person ahead of me. I ran when they ran and I walked when they walked.

Doing this I gained significant speed and crossed many people who had crossed me, bettering my race completion time. All this time running has taught me that keeping moving is very important and even though you might not finish at a pace you want, you will eventually reach the goal, if you just keep moving towards it. This experience taught me getting back to speed with breaks and okay still will increase your momentum a lot. The key is to keep picking up the pace, moving towards the goal is important, but if I can accelerate in between the hurdles, it will be a lot easier for me than I realize.

I do not know if this makes sense to anyone who reads this, but I am writing this for me and this is a positive experience for me.