The 2 Hour Half Marathon

The 2 hour half marathon is a popular goal that many recreational runners want to achieve. For some it is a starter goal that sets them on their way, but for others it takes far longer to crack. I’ve heard stories from so many amazing athletes who say that it was this particular goal that started them on their path.

As a coach, I see the 2 hour half as a kind of ‘gateway goal.’ It’s a goal that requires time and effort to achieve but is certainly achievable. It tends to be a goal for runners that are building up their overall fitness and still working to learn the essentials of consistent training.

The great thing about this goal is that it is enough of a stretch for most people that these essentials and the basics of distance running all need to be learnt as part of the preparation for the race. In that respect it allows a peep behind the curtain into what endurance sport really takes in terms of training, recovery, pacing, consistency, commitment and more. For many people once they’ve seen behind the curtain, they get hooked and start to explore those elements more seriously. They get a coach, take on personalised training plans, become more focused in their efforts, dig a little deeper into training methodologies, get interested in the history of the sport, find friends and groups with similar interests. A true shift starts to happen.

In my own experience, I remember running a 1hr 56 half marathon and then going on to run other local races, 20km races and eventually a marathon over a 2 year period. It was definitely the gateway for me.

In itself, the 2 hour half marathon doesn’t mean anything in particular. It’s an arbitrary distance and an arbitrary number. If anything it’s more of a symbol, similar to a 4 hour marathon and a sub 30 mins 5km. However, the skills, learning, fitness and habits that you pick up in training for something like that open the door to the wonderful world of endurance sports and from there so much more is possible!

Hurry Slowly...

As we come out of lockdown over the coming months and the weather improves, it will be all too easy to get excited, sign up to several races, increase our training load and push the envelope.

In principle, with a well balanced training plan you should be ok but even then, remember that the best judge of your recovery and progress is yourself. Those little niggles and tight spots that inevitably happen as we get back into full training can easily turn to injuries and an unwanted trip to the physio.

So my advice is to listen to your body, take your time and trust your instincts rather than waiting or being overly reliant on what your tech is telling you. These days you can always find the stats to back up whatever you want to prove, so learn to listen to what your body is telling you and act accordingly.

In other words, hurry slowly.

The overall trajectory is what matters

I hate to break it to you, but progress isn’t linear. That nice straight line, tracking at 45 degrees across the graph… it doesn’t exist in reality.

The road of progress is full of bumps and obstacles. There are also dips in the road that will slow or halt your progression for a while. Accepting this reality is a huge step in changing our expectations of what our progress as runners ‘should' be like.

It’s a bit like looking at a graph of what the stock market is doing. You can look at it for the past hour, day, week, month, 3 months, year, 5 years or even 10 years. Each of these give a different perspective and some will give an interesting and sobering insight into where you really are right now and whether that dip is actually anything to be concerned about. More often than not, the obstacle that you look at on the 1 day view, is actually insignificant from a 1 year perspective.

What is more important is the overall trajectory, the bigger picture. Is your running tracking in the right direction, even with the lumps and bumps along the way. Are you now achieving things that 2 years ago you thought would have been impossible? Are you now enjoying your running more, with less pressure? A great example is Olympians, who deal in 4 year cycles. Some of them they have been to 5 Olympic games and in their cases, they can view each run session as contributing to a 20 year career puzzle. That's perspective.

Remember also that each runner will be caring about and measuring something different. Some will measure km’s per week, others will measure metres climbed, number of runs, time on legs, longest run, overall training load, fatigue levels, average pace and so on…... There are so many metrics that we can potentially measure, that comparison to other runners and their ‘graph’ is futile.

Accepting that your progress will not be linear and full of obstacles is a great start, then it’s a question of standing far enough back to really see your overall trajectory, which is what really matters.

Start Lines and Finish Lines

In a conversation with another coach yesterday, I was reminded of a phrase that I’ve used often, but with the lack of races, have not used recently… “You’ve got to get to the start line in order to get to the finish line."

So many of us spend our time and energy thinking about the actual race or event that we have signed up to. We can visualise it. We can smell the finish line almost. However, it is actually impossible to run the time, pace, power or distance you want on race day without making it to the start line in the first place.

The most common thing that prevents people from getting to their start line (aside from COVID!) is either injury, inconsistent training or both.

For me as a coach, I look at both the journey from where you currently are, to the start line, as well as the event itself. The journey over months of training and preparation is where your race goals get carved into shape and you make the most progress. All those hours of running and consistent training get you to the start line, so that you can actually make it to the finish line.

It is therefore worth each of us thinking through, researching and emphasising the consistency and injury prevention that ultimately enables you to get to your start line. The finish line will then take care of itself.