I kind of had this as this years goal (well 20k) and I hit 19k in February and so thought I’d easily do it (and was thinking maybe I should make 40k my target for this year), but then I went and knackered my knee and, well, it took until last weekend to build up again and do a half marathon.
I’ll see about doing a marathon next year, but the half was HARD; The last couple of kilometres on top of the 19k were really difficult so doubling that distance feels crazy right now.
I am very happy with my time (this wasn’t a race, just me on my own on the local roads) coming in well under two hours (which was my aim/hope).
And whilst running I finally twigged that runners aren’t bragging (well, assuredly some are) when posting their times and distances, rather, all they are saying is “Wow, I ran X km this weekend in Y minutes. Me. I did that! Isn’t that wonderful? I never imagined I’d be able to do that”. You really can’t compare yourself to others, but you can compare yourself to you.
I need to repeat this of course. Like with the 10k I won’t really consider it done until I’ve done it again; might opt for a bit of vaseline next time though.
[EDIT: 2017-10-08] Did it again today. 22k again, but about 7 mins slower. I can live with that seeing as it was a different route as well - certainly sploit for choice round here.