Disclaimer: We are (obviously) by no means professional runners. We were two college seniors running our first half marathon! This is how our personal experience went and hopefully it can be helpful to you!

How/why we decided to run a half marathon:

Rachel: Running a half marathon was something I knew in the back of my mind I had always wanted to do. I love running but I knew something like that I would need a partner to do it with. I had a feeling I could convince Nolan to run it with me and came up with this idea that it was something we just HAD to do before we graduated. So, after our senior year spring break we started training and about 8 weeks later we ran one!

Nolan: Rachel asked me when I was celebrating St. Patrick’s day and I was in such a good mood that I decided to agree. Once I was in there was no getting out.

Our prior running experience:

Rachel: I love running and I think it mostly stemmed from my history of playing soccer prior to college. During college I ran about 3 miles on an average run, sometimes more or less depending on how I was feeling. Nothing super crazy or serious here!

Nolan: I have been running and doing cross country since middle school and it’s just always how I chose to relieve stress. I typically would run between 3 and 5 miles so the half marathon was a bit of a stretch but I wanted to see if I could do it.

What plan we picked and why:

Rachel: I googled a random plan to fit the small time frame that we had, and we used it!

Nolan: Rachel showed me the plan and we started it a week later than we were supposed to. We had been running a little already before that so we were already kind of on pace for it.

How well did we stick to the plan:

Rachel: Almost to a tee in the beginning. Towards the end we had a few conflicts with weekend plans, etc. getting in the way of the exact schedule but we just flip flopped the day our long run was on and it still worked out fine. The hardest part was running on our own or when the weather forced us to run inside. Luckily USC has an indoor track and this only happened once or twice. As far as running on our own, I usually did well with it but there were two times I mayyyy have skipped (don’t tell Nolan!).

Nolan: Rachel and I stuck to the plan pretty well at the beginning. It was sometimes difficult to find times to run between classes, work, and everything going on. If need be, we would run on our own (or at least I would). We motivated each other because typically if one of us was down the other was doing fine and we were able to rally each other.

Where did we run all those miles for training:

Rachel: It absolutely varied. Sometimes we liked running the same routes and other times it about bored us to death. We started out with shorter distances and typically ran those at the Riverwalk in Columbia. There are two popular spots to run there, so we usually took turns driving to those. Once we started having longer distances, it was painful to just go back and forth on the Riverwalk, so we started running all over campus and in downtown Columbia (the Vista area, NOT Five Points). It eventually started to get pretty darn hot and we started running by my apartment (Olympia Mills) because there was a shaded portion that had a water fountain. No guilt in stopping at the water fountain occasionally because there are water stations during the actual race!

Nolan: At the beginning we were very routine and would always run in the same place. As the distances got longer we found we needed to mix it up to keep ourselves from going crazy.

How we prepared for the long runs in training:

Rachel: We tried to be realistic and also practiced the timing of our snacks to see what worked best for us. We forced ourselves to do at least one of the really longs in the morning (our race time was early AM), so we could be as prepared as we could be.

Nolan: We would typically try to eat a decent amount of carbs beforehand. I always ate bananas before long runs and liked to think they helped me from getting cramps. Besides that I would also eat a granola bar right before.

What we ate/drank before and during the race:

Rachel: We drank at most of the stops. Personally I started with water but then quickly switched to Gatorade. We both ate Honey Stinger Energy Chews during the race, which are essentially sugar to keep our energy up throughout the race. We planned to eat them at miles 4, 8, and 11 but ended up actually eating them at miles 5 and 9. We used either the strawberry or fruit punch chews which were really good, honestly like having a treat throughout the race, but I have also heard the pink lemonade are tasty! Also, we chose to walk at a fast pace while we ate them. Some people use gels, too, so they don’t have to stop running and they can get it down quicker, but neither of us were interested in doing that.

Nolan: Before the race I had a bagel with peanut butter and a banana. We tried doing coconut water but it was so gross we couldn’t drink it.

Did you have a goal time:

Rachel: Yes, I wanted to finish the race in under 2 hours. And I did!

Nolan: Finish the race in under 2 hours and beat Rachel. And I did! *by 1/10 of a second

Would we do it again:

Rachel: Initially I thought definitely not, but now that it’s been a few months I would definitely do it again. I’ve actually been giving some thought to a marathon down the road!

Nolan: I thought I would never run again but after awhile of being unhealthy I kind of missed being in such good shape. I would consider doing a half marathon again but would never consider a marathon.

Hopefully this helps! Let us know if you have any other questions!

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