This weekend I celebrated one year of running half-marathons. My very first 21.1km was the Knysna Half Marathon in 2009, so it was wonderful to go back there this year, a little fitter and more experienced!

The Knysna Forest marathon is a special experience. You set out in the dark early morning hours to catch a minibus taxi to the start of the race, deep in the forest. Runners huddle around the fires, drinking coffee and gearing up for the race. Then the race itself is mostly on jeep track through the scenic forest. They say the first 3kms are hilly, but in fact most of the race is undulating. This year we ran an extra 4km through the forest with a slightly hillier route.

I was grateful to my friend Chris for running with me the entire way – probably the first time I’ve ever run an entire race with someone! One has good days and bad days when running – and for some reason I felt as though Saturday was a bad day. I got tired really early in the race, feeling the burn in my quads on the uphills, so since Chris is a much faster and stronger runner it was great to have someone to follow and try to keep up with.

But I did run a new PB (personal best). You may remember that I ran my first sub 2h30 at the Weskus half a couple of weeks ago, with my time slightly over 2h26. This time I finished in just under 2h24 – about 13 minutes faster than my 2009 finishing time; and about 3 minutes faster than my personal best time for 21.1km. Funny how one keeps shifting the goal posts as you get faster and fitter. Despite running a PB I felt slightly disappointed that I didn’t make my goal time of 2h20, but I know that’s ridiculous. I did great!

My next half marathon will be the Gun Run in October, after the triathlon. For now I’m going to stick to short distances (up to 10-15km) to work on my speed. The run portion of the triathlon is only 5km, so I’ll be working on improving my speed at that distance. After a complete rest day post-race and a recovery swim on Monday, I’m ready to jump back into training!

Tanja Bosch is our 2010 Challenge Diarist. She is training for her first triathlon.

>> Last week’s blog: Three months to go!