Half Marathon speed?

[JoolieB1]

I have entered a HM in September and I am working towards (1) keeping my legs healthy (2) building up my distance. Furthest so far is 13 km and have several 10 kms under my belt too. Niggly knee made me pause my plans but building up to it again. Wondering what a reasonable finish time for a HM would be? I run at around 7 mins per km so if I do that on the day would expect to finish in about 2 hrs 10 mins if I kept going at the same pace! What would be the slowest allowed? Of course I don't want to be last but it is more about the distance! Julie

[MarkyD]

You can use the Runners World pace predictor:

runnersworld.co.uk/general/...

This will give you a good idea of your likely time for the HM - it will help if you have a realistic, recent 10km to base it on.

[JoolieB1 in reply to MarkyD]

That didn't work for me, told me it would take me 22 hours, I hope not 😉

[roseabi Ultramarathon]

They may have a cut off time in their rules. For the Milton Keynes one I did in December it said that the course would be closed 3 hrs and 15 min after the start, and that anyone still running would be "invited into the sweep vehicle to take you to HQ." I was quite scared about that! But I managed in 2 hrs 15 even with my dodgy knee heh heh

[dagshar Half Marathon]

At 7min/km it would be 2 hours 27 mins; for 2hrs 10 mins you'd have to run at an average 6min/km (7 x 21 = 147).

I have a similar pace and when I tried some race predictors a few months ago I came to about 2 1/2 hours. I doubt very much I will be able to achieve this in a month's time though, as mine is a trail over grass, sand and dunes, but on road it probably would be achievable. As you have 8 months left to go, you may well increase your speed between now and then anyway. Good luck!

PS: can't believe mine is only 4 weeks away - swallows hard

[JoolieB1 in reply to dagshar]

Wow, how have you been getting on, have you run the distance yet?

[dagshar Half Marathon in reply to JoolieB1]

No, I got up to 18k in October, then focussed on shorter off road runs as I did a few trail events. Did another 18k in December which at the time might have been a bit too much too quickly (i.e. without building distance up again slowly), so in January I had long runs of 7k, 10k and 14k. Last Sunday was meant to have been 16/17k, but I had a really bad cold and it would have been foolish to have attempted a long run, so I just did 30 minutes. I am doing the London winter run this weekend, so only 10k for me this week, which leaves me two weekends in Feb for long runs before cutting back the week before the event. I am pretty certain that I can last the distance as long as I am well and have no injuries, but I would have liked a few more opportunities to try out nutrition and drink while on the move. Hopefully the weather in Feb will be fine on the weekends, so I can do a 15/16k and then another 18/19k. I don't think I will attempt to go the full 21k in training as I just won't have enough time left.

[JoolieB1 in reply to dagshar]

I have read that it isn't necessary to have run the half marathon distance before the day, so I am sure with your solid foundation, you have built up good levels of stamina and fitness. I have the luxury of time with a 10k in June, HM in September so I might as well just increase my long run times. Just had a week off with a silly knee which is still not completely better, so doing 5ks slowly until I know I am good to go further

[Realfoodieclub Marathon]

My pace is a lot slower than yours. I did my HM in 3:08 and there were quite a few people behind me. Nearly all the events have cut off times but usually they just ask you to move to the pavement for HM and M's. My cut off time was 3:45. I am doing another one in May but I'm speed walking it and hoping to complete in 3:20. So at your pace I can't see any problem you will probably be in a middle pen with that sort of speed so when you start you will see how many are behind you and that should help settle your nerves about being last.

[JoolieB1 in reply to Realfoodieclub]

Well I have never run a HM, furthest distance so far is 13 km, so we will see how I go on my long runs before getting over excited! Well done for completing yours. The further we go, the bigger places we need to find. After the HM how did you recover and what are ur usual run distances after that?? 😀

[Realfoodieclub Marathon in reply to JoolieB1]

Recovery was a little all over. I got a bladder infection. No matter how long the wait for the loo before the event is GO! I will never make that mistake again. I do a lot of 5km now but my favourite distance is still 7km. It takes me an hour and I like an hours worth of exercise when I can fit it in.

[ju-ju- Marathon]

I think your expected time/ speed sounds fine. Dont go worrying about cut off times but focus on your training and getting ready, most importantly, enjoy it!!!

[JoolieB1 in reply to ju-ju-]

Great expectations! I feel comfortable at that pace but as I've only run 13 km before, need to see if that is sustainable over a longer distance. I have found a huge woodland track so I could even run HM distance there so plenty of scope to build up, just need to keep my legs well!!