That is a great time, congrats! I am also hoping to be able to run a full marathon one day. Ran my first flat half marathon last year in July and my second one this year in May. It was a much harder one though with 3 steep parts: The last one took me 02:15 to finish. We were very lucky, it was around 25°C and a little bit windy. I like warm/hot runs more than cold ones and the views on the course were beautiful :) There is particularly hard marathon in the city I live in which they call a "trail" marathon. 1500m elevation on narrow trails through the forest. I think I will try to train for it for next year. Even though I like warm runs, I tend to run more often in winter. Are you more or a summer or winter runner?
Thanks! I'm really happy with how my race went. That trail marathon looks tough. That hill starting about 30 km must punish many runners. There's a trail run here at a great park, and I'm thinking of trying the half marathon next year. Do you prefer trail runs or road runs? I mostly do roads, but trails intrigue me. I prefer spring and fall. Cool but not cold weather is perfect for me. I run through the winter as much as I can, and I may try to keep up my long weekend runs. What I do prefer in winter is hiking. There's no mud, no bugs, and the crowds are much smaller. I like to say running season is March through November, and hiking season is August through April. They keep me busy.Are you more or a summer or winter runner?
Also interested in Cumol's thoughts. Trail running is such a different, and, in my mind, even more amazing experience than road running. There's an association with nature that's largely lost when you're running on pavement. Trail running is taking over road running for me.
And again, we seem to have a similar view on things :D Trail running is more fun and very different than running on roads. Running on roads is like meditation, first my mind wanders around being busy thinking for about 20-30 minutes. Then, it "declutters" (no idea how to explain that) and my feet are just doing their thing and my head feels clear. Beautiful experience and necessary to balance my days in the lab. Trail running is very different. I am hyper-aware, jumping around, adapting to ever changing terrain, changing speeds, constantly going up and down. For some reason it feels more natural to me than road running. It taps into a similar place like rock climbing does, to me. As if it is rooted in a place deeper in my brain and it feels "right" doing it.
How...Why... Who would do this to themselves? I hate running in the winter!I tend to run more often in winter.
I keep asking myself the same thing... My explanation is this: in summer, there are other/more fun things to do outside that I cannot do in winter (like rock climbing). My schedule tends to declutter itself starting november and stays pretty stable and predictable till about march. And since I go running with a colleague of mine, it becomes easier to sync our schedules and go for runs together. An additional factor, winter seems to affect me pretty badly in Germany. I get stressed faster and my mood suffers from it. Running helps against the stress and mood swings. edit: AND, running at -10°C next to a partially frozen at dawn is damn majestic.
