 All right guys it's four days after my half marathon in Jötteborg, Sweden. I had a blast, I had a great time traveling there with my dad, running the race, enjoying the vibes but I am disappointed as well because I wasn't able to go sub 130 which was my big goal and I wasn't even able to go faster than my personal best so it was a big disaster kind of for me as a race. I made some mistakes and I want to talk about my race experience, how it felt, what I learned and of course what are some of those mistakes that I made in this race so let's get into it. First of all some context I mean epic race hundreds and thousands of people out cheering going through the whole city of Gothenburg in Sweden. I went there with my dad, we took the train together, we stayed in a hotel, we had an awesome time together just sharing this experience. He ran the race, I ran the race, he did a great race, I did a poor race but you know all in all we just it was a great adventure and I'm super happy about the experience. Now the race itself didn't go as planned let's just put it that way. I started off right I wanted to go sub 130 so that's a pace of four minutes and 15 seconds per kilometer and so I had my plan and I was like okay I'm gonna execute so right off the starting line I was like I'm gonna either be able to hold that pace or not as it turns out I was not able to hold that pace for a variety of reasons but I thought so in the beginning so I just went off and I tried. 415 per kilometer I came through 5k in something like 2130, 2140 so a little bit behind goal pace but that made sense because there was a lot of hills on that first 5k and yeah I was just feeling epic feeling great passing my dad who was watching I was just like yeah I feel awesome and yeah I was in start group number three so there was the elites and the first group they're already gone group two gone and then I was at the at the front of group number three qualified because of my half marathon I did a 133 38 half marathon in Oslo in September last year so that qualified me to be in that starting group and so that was cool and then yeah I headed off 5k and yeah I was like it's it's going fast it's tough but I can do this then between 5k and 10k I was starting to really feel it it was getting harder a little bit too hard I was like this this is hard why why is it so hard I should be able to hold this pace my breathing was fine not really struggling with breathing or anything but it did feel hard and as I came through 10k I was still a little bit behind goal pace I've slowed down even a little bit more which was strange because the those 5k should have been faster but okay yeah I'm still somewhat in the ballpark pace type of a range but I was starting to think oh my god this is just halfway and I'm I'm feeling like this because I was really starting to feel tired and it was really tough um and from there on it just got worse okay so um I was continuing progressively slowing down really really struggling to hold the pace and as I came through 15 it was like I was a broken man okay I I realized I cannot go sub 130 and I was just holding on for dear life trying to make uh the PB um so yeah it was just at that point really really bad my it was as if my legs weren't able to move right my will power was there I didn't give up I wanted to move but my legs just wouldn't listen no matter how much I pushed I just wasn't able to maintain that pace so it was a strange experience hardest toughest race of my life and those last five kilometers were just absolutely brutal um progressively slowed down to a point where I was actually running my easy pace my you know my easy pace is like 5 10 to 5 30 per kilometer minutes per kilometer um and that's the pace I was running even though my effort level was just like maximum I was I was my heart rate was like 195 I think I topped that at like 201 at one point in terms of heart rate so I was like really giving it my all and adrenaline was just rushing through my blood and still I was not able to hold any faster pace than my slow easy pace and there was a lot of hills more hills than I thought and we'll get to that um that's one of my excuses you see and it's just got harder and harder and harder and people were passing me and I was just I was broken okay I'll put some pictures here of my my from the race so you can see what kind of state I was in I was struggling I was it was painful it was the it was so hard and I was a little depressed as well because I realized I wasn't able to to do sub 130 anyway made it to the finish line and barely and um yeah just uh that was a tough tough experience but I didn't give up I did not give up I kept going and kept going and kept going no matter how slow I went ended up running 134 48 which is disappointing but I mean obviously still pretty fast in the grand scheme of things I think I finished something like top top 12 percent of the whole race I mean the fastest 12 percent even even more maybe top 10 percent I don't remember but I mean relatively speaking it's a still a pretty fast time obviously but uh relative to my goals and my fitness level I feel like I didn't really run to my potential now let's talk a little bit about why I think that happened well first of all the most important reason that I realized afterwards was I felt like this was hillier than I thought I was certain because I'd looked at a Strava segment from the race the whole race prior to the race I saw it said 71 or around 70 meters of elevation I was like 70 meters of elevation that's pretty flat that is that is not too bad so I was expecting 70 meters for the whole race right now it's like that that doesn't make sense this felt like it was much more hillier than that and I asked the race organizers and they actually told me it was actually 204 meters of elevation which is like way more than twice it's like almost three times as much elevation as I planned on and I was like what and I realized actually on Strava segments the elevation difference on a segment is actually the difference between the lowest point and the highest point it's not actually a cumulative elevation gain number so that's good to know so already there we can see the biggest and the main reason why I actually didn't run as well as I hoped because if I knew that was 204 meters as opposed to 71 I would already say I'm not going to do sub 130 because I knew and I still feel like I am at that fitness level at the moment where on a perfect day on a pretty flat course I could go sub 130 but I'm just on that edge as I told you guys in my pre-race video I'm just on that edge and so 204 meters of elevation that's too much I could not go sub 130 on on a course like that if I knew that I'll probably rather say something like maybe 131 right or perhaps 132 even who knows I would definitely adjust my goal and knowing that you could now realize how going out at a 415 pace going out at a sub 130 pace on a course like that with tons of hills and especially the first 5 to 10k had a lot of hills that's suicide that's basically really bad pacing so I ended up literally burning through all my reserves just too quickly and probably building up too much lactate and probably shooting my legs as well because actually when I look at my Strava data I could see that I'm actually sometimes running like 330 paced 340 paced that's the pace I've never really run in a downhill before and so on the downhills on this first part of race I was just hammering it and I'm thinking that might have just it was too much for my muscles so whether or not the slowing the progressively slowing down throughout the race was due to lactate build up in the legs causing acidity and not being able to use the enzymes to create ATP in the legs etc or whether or not it was due to that muscle damage from the hard downhills I don't know but one thing is for sure I was running too fast in those first few kilometers but of course if it was indeed a flat race perhaps I would have been able to sustain it but it wasn't and so yeah bad pacing we could we could we could call it I'm just figuring out the splits here looking at my watch so we can call it bad pacing but of course it's actually a mixture of bad well it is bad pacing but not because I wasn't able to control the pace I was pretty spot on in terms of pace control actually I was a little bit too fast even for a sub 30 half marathon but pacing was okay but because I had the wrong information the whole strategy was was problematic listen to my splits here from the race first kilometer 408 second 406 third 415 fourth 414 427 429 404 415 426 415 418 424 427 slowing down 436 425 444 511 512 451 507 and finally 430 so you could see how I was slowing down there and those first few kilometers were definitely too fast for the course but even if I was able to run a sub 130 on a flat course it was still be too fast so that's the biggest reason my pacing was just off and my information was was wrong I based it on the wrong information poor planning on my part now there are other factors too I have a no tear let's just take a quick look if you if you follow me on Strava there's a link in the description you can you can see all the details from my training etc and from the race I was not able to take in enough water at the aid stations I need to practice drinking those cups those cups are so difficult to just grab and drink while running I had to stop to be able to even drink anything so I definitely didn't drink enough water and considering the fact that it was actually you know 17 or 18 degree Celsius which is not super hot but it's definitely not ideal either it's on the warm side and the humidity was 85% okay so that means that's another factor as well probably kept me you know if it's just a few seconds per kilometer just a couple of seconds per kilometer even it's enough to tip me towards a slower race right because remember I said I'm in sub 130 shape on a perfect day but this was not a perfect day in terms of weather it was not too bad could have been worse for sure but also could have been better and the fact that I was not able to drink enough in this type of weather made it even worse probably I was not able to take in enough sugar either because I was doing a stupid mistake of putting too much salt in my drink mix so that it tasted horrible and I just wasn't able to consume it almost so I just consumed half of my sugar maybe it's a factor it's a pretty short race so perhaps not too big of a factor but you know every little bit counts and so it is a factor for sure and the other thing was that it's just I'm just looking at my computer screen the other thing is that I had a really stressful day before traveling with my dad traveling to Gutenberg our train was cancelled halfway and we had to get off and find a bus and take this route to get it was just like a stressful day we arrived late in the city at the hotel I had a late dinner I had poor a poor night's sleep my stress hormones was up it was just a stressful day before fun but stressful so that that might be a factor as well in terms of how I performed on race day for sure we could also say was I not running is not enough mileage perhaps consistently in the weeks leading into the race perhaps because I mean I did have a bit a few bumps in the road this spring in terms of being sick and that sort of thing so I mean maybe more consistent training would have would have made me more fit I mean it definitely would perhaps that's a factor I did run a 10k race just is it three weeks three or four weeks prior to the race which I feel like is a little bit too close for ideal conditions maybe I'm not fully recovered from that maybe my muscles wasn't weren't fully recovered maybe I don't know perhaps not could have been a factor did I run my threshold sessions a little bit too hard whether I did or whether I whether that affected me or not I feel like I did actually do that I did run my threshold sessions and this build up just a tad too hard looking back I'm feeling like I've learned that I need to back off a little bit and rather than just hammering it absolutely right a little bit on the high end every time I do a threshold session I'm just gonna do it more conservative next time to not wear out perhaps I was peeking too soon basically and not feeling optimal on race day there's also the x factor you know there's always something that maybe we can't quantify or can't put our finger on exactly what it is but sometimes you have a good day sometimes you have a bad day and it's not always easy to find out why that is so there's an x factor there as well so yeah and of course there's also the fact that I have gained two kilos of fat since my last race so if you consider that maybe this time would have been more or less equal to my last performance six months ago and and yeah I also wore heavier shoes you know maybe grasping for straws there but you know there are a lot of little things that's what I feel like is there's a lot of little things that were not ideal for this race and whether or not all of those things mattered I don't know but one thing I do know and that is that the fact that I thought the race course was flatter whereas in fact it was very hilly and that sort of threw me off because my pacing was then not appropriate for the race my goal was not appropriate for the race and I ended up running too fast in the first half and just crashing and burning in the second half essentially so if I had better information I would adjust my goal I would slow my pace a little bit and I would probably be able to hold that pace more even and probably run a 132 or 131 so I feel like that's the main reason but there are other little details as you heard on the good side on the pro side I came through the race with no structural issues no pains not afterwards not doing no nothing wrong in my legs my feet that's the first for me so that means my my my legs and my body is able to tolerate the distance and the stress very well so that's a pro and there's also another thing that I'm proud of is that I was not giving up I pushed through and I persevered and it was a big mental challenge for me and I've learned so much about my body and my mind and and certainly also about pacing in this race so and and also about knowing the facts before you plan for a race because that was the biggest mistake I made I wasn't I thought I knew the facts but I didn't so I gotta make sure I know all the facts before my next race and my next race of course is the marathon in November in this and apart from the fact that I'll do several other races which are just like b races my next a race is that marathon and that marathon I've already run the course I've done two long runs on the course and so I know the course so there's no surprises there that's a good that's a good thing yes yes yes that's it um it was an awesome trip it was an awesome experience and it was just epic on so many levels it was painful it was hard it was disappointing but it was also accelerating and my dad ran a great race went to 225 he wanted to go sub 230 he's 60 years old he's run this race several times before in his life and yeah it was fun to join him and for him to show me around the race and just check it out isn't this awesome and it was so many people such a big I think it's the biggest half marathon in the world in terms of participation so really really cool experience and now it's just recovery time for me and then on to my next goal and for sure I am going to crush sub 130 at one point fairly soon I hope if I reach my goal I'm gonna announce it right now I want to go sub I think I've said it already but I think I want to go sub three hours in this can I do that is it unrealistic perhaps but if I am able to do that then I will effectively go sub 130 twice in that race in five four or five months when I say it now it sounds almost unrealistic I guess and it probably is on the high end of what's realistic but I will be losing a little bit of weight fat before that time and I will be doing a lot of training before that time and I will certainly pace myself perfectly I hope on that day so maybe I will break 130 twice the next time to make up for the fact that I didn't do it now we'll see leave your comments down below to let me know what you think about my race and maybe you have some advice even if you want to know more details you could follow me on Strava and look at the the race details there's a link in the description and yeah that's it also if you're interested in like insider content exclusive content regular video snippets with no editing monthly Q&A's all that good stuff you should check out my new patreon page for the long trail there's also a link in the description for that right thanks for watching thanks for following along thanks for subscribing and I'll see you guys in the next video all right bye