Kärtnen Läuft - Carinthia Runs

This was my first half marathon an since I was so disappointed with my marathon I needed a proper time. Worse than 1:30h was not an option, but not too easy. The day before it rained so it was nice and cold, the perfect weather for me, so no excuse there. I was in a good mood an confident, warmed up a little and then went to the start. With about 3200 starters it was cramped. In between all these runners the usual question arose: "why am I doing this again" and as usual there was no answer, that just came later. Well lets get going, which was not easy since it was so full. I needed about 2km to get out of the masses of runners. And then I saw the official 1:30h runner he stayed about 200m ahead of me and I could not get him. I was hungry and still not warm enough, damn. With about a 4:20min pace I was just too slow. But then came the first food station and I got a banana. I squeezed it into my mouth and like a hamster kept it in my cheeks pouches. Slowly I could then eat it which was not quite easy due to the heavy breathing. So the hunger was cured, after 5km I was finally warm and so I could finally start running. I picked up the pace and got to the 1:30h runner. Everything was going well so I stayed at about 4:07min but then I noticed there is still some energy left and only 3km to go. So I went for it. I had troubles with my watch, but it had to be a pace under 4min and it was going great. Why did I not start earlier with this speed. Well with a nice sprint I got to the finish line at 1:28:04h which is ok, but I knew I could do better.