Bled half marathon. Its third edition. Traditionally an august run, when temperatures are still high. Weather didn’t disappoint as it was quite hot. It was almost 30C (or just below) just a few minutes before start. Therefore I took it as a training run, just to check my form before Berlin marathon at the end September.

21km is approx. 3,5 laps around the lake. As the finish was almost in centre of Bled, start was on the other side. And as usual, I was late, and therefore had a nice warm-up run to the start. There were not many runners, so it was not a problem getting close to the front. In the first lap everything went to plan, it was almost too fast. First lap (just below 6k) in around 26 minutes, pace was according to plan where i want to be in Berlin. It was actually too fast in such a hot day (race started at 17:00). After first 3k i took a bottle, and had problem opening it. And after 20 meters gave up and threw away unopened bottle. Doh. Thirsty. And after first short ascent getting even thirstier. with all the water in lake this really feels strange. Basically, then i decided that i will not pursue my goal, and just survive. Too hot to be a hero.

After few kilometers heat is still not giving, but i am. Between 7 and 14k strange thoughts come to my mind. “your training was bad”, “you are ill prepared” etc… And with thought a film from 2010 starts coming back… when i recorded my worst even 21k time (over 2h!!!!) – then i was really hurting due to heat and a bit too much beer evening before. My pace slows to around 5 minutes per km, i lose visual contact with leading women on the race. I drink water, isotonic drinks… not feeling any better.

On 15k i am in a last lap. My time is 1h 11m and a few seconds, and i start believing at i can run last lap in less than 29 minutes. A kilometer later i up the pace a bit, and start surpassing other racers. It doesn’t feel so hot anymore (its below 30c now), and i feel better from meter to meter. And make it through last lap in around 27 minutes. I notice, that i surpassed 5-6 people in the last 3km, and that made to majority of them more than 2 minutes in last 5km. Not bad. Apparently i can run. Not very fast, but still… My final time is 1 hour 38 minutes and some second. Not bad, just a bit slower than my target half in Berlin 🙂

To sum it up. Its really a nice run. Good organization, there was enough of refreshments (every 2km!!!!!!!), what was missing was only an odd orange or banana. Price was also just right, and we got a towel in a packet. Small one, but that was just perfect after the race. In total there were not many runners, just around 120 on 21k run. Though, one cannot imagine having a huge attendance (1000+) on this course. Maybe a low attendance was due to the fact, that the weather was hot, that it is organized during holidays, or that just advertising was quite limited. And track is not a record breaking fast. It goes fair amount up and down, so… small hills, and lots of tourists (which don’t move).

But I do have a problem with a distance of the half marathon. My garmin showed 20,7k only. Could be that something was wrong with satellites or that I just lost connection from time to time.

Basically. It was nice, I’ll certainly come back for the 4th edition next year. Or when it will take place…