Sparkassen Phoenix Half Marathon Dortmund 2023 (ENG)

Let me tell you about this great experience of preparing for the Dortmund Halb-Marathon (21.1km) over the last 40 days. I decided to participate after running my previous record of 10km from 10 years ago in around an hour and then running 13km. I felt confident, believing that with the right workouts and consistency, I could earn a medal (Spoiler alert: I did). However, before that, I had about 35 days to prepare myself.

Actually, I learned about this race a month before I went on a beautiful vacation to Bulgaria by the Black Sea. I ran a few times there, but my training was disrupted by laziness and quick drinking. So, when I returned, I restarted the whole process. It began slowly, with only around 11km. Not to brag or anything, but now these numbers feel like a walk in the park. You feel yourself growing in the process, especially when you have a goal waiting for you at the end. I quickly signed up for the marathon, investing 60 euros to be a part of it. I decided that, to ensure my success, I had to run this half marathon before the date.

My plan was simple: I had to run 10, then 14, then 18, then 21 kilometers, repeating it all with a day's break between each workout until the date. Along the way to achieving this, I encountered a couple of problems. My goal was to run around 300 km in the month before the Marathon, but I achieved only 200 km, with some of my shorter workouts not recorded (you can see the others in the post). Another issue was that one of my toenails decided to abandon me and broke off a week before the marathon. It wasn't painful, but I was a bit worried.

The formula for success is generally not complicated; it's essential to put in the effort when striving to achieve your goals. So, my formula of increasing the distance every time and then repeating it was successful. Before the marathon started, I had already completed it twice (once in 2 hours and 14 minutes and once in 2 hours and 15 minutes), and I was pretty sure I could do it. What I didn't expect was to beat my record by around 12-13 minutes and to surpass a record I had set 10 years ago with the most memorable 10km run I had back then (10km in 55 minutes).

The day of the Marathon was stressful, but I knew I was ready. I had worked hard on my patience. I remember waiting in one place among the crowd of contestants during the last 15 minutes before the start, which would usually drive me crazy. However, on that day, I was focused. The signal was given, and it took a few minutes before we started moving. The crowd began to move, and until my 14th km, I was fast, faster than I expected (5.34/km). Then I got tired, and I remember the last 5 km were kind of challenging. The terrain was different from my last two successful half-marathons, with more inclines than I expected. I should've tested the terrain beforehand, but whatever. In the last 15 minutes, it poured down like crazy. We were all soaked. However, I found my rhythm and speed after that. I'm sharing my success with you because I'm proud of it. It took a lot of effort, and I was rewarded. Running with at least 2000 people was more fun than running alone. I was competitive and achieved my best results under this pressure. I'm planning to take on the BMW Marathon in Berlin, which is 42km in September next year, but for now, I'm going for a run.

Iliya Badev