Half marathon popular distance for annual race

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This article was published 21/06/2015 (3792 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Finishing a half marathon on what could have been a lazy Sunday isn’t half bad.

Especially if you only started training two weeks ago, like Erica Casey, who signed up on a whim to run the 37th Manitoba Marathon with her husband.

“I came from a track and field background, so for me, this is the longest race I’ve ever done,” Casey said. “To try to attempt a full (marathon) would have just been not smart.”

More than a third of participants in the Manitoba Marathon Sunday chose to run the half marathon. It’s a nearly 21-kilometre stretch that’s been the most popular leg in recent years.

This year, 2910 people registered for the half marathon, while 653 people laced up for the full race. There were 10,223 runners altogether, including those from the Super Run, Winnipeg Free Press 10K, wheelchair and Mini Mite races.

For Casey’s husband, who ran the full marathon last year, running the half meant less training this time around, but he doesn’t prefer one distance to the other.

“I don’t know if there are any advantages to the half over the full. It’s just different,” Jeff Casey said. “I get to eat breakfast quicker.”

Many Manitobans choose to run half marathons in the spring and gear up for fulls in the fall, said Rachel Munday, executive director of the Manitoba Marathon, on Sunday.

The beauty of the half is you can choose whether you want it to be a social run or a full-blown race, Munday said.

“It’s still a long distance to run, but it’s totally doable and you don’t feel like you’ve been hit by a truck afterward,” she said. “It’s going to obviously keep you fit and if you’re looking at doing a longer distance, it’s a great way to prepare for that.”

High school English teacher Mike McGovern ran the half Sunday and plans to run a full come fall.

“For me, it’s shorter, but you still have a sense of accomplishment,” he said of the half.

“I train all winter with guys who train for the full — it’s really hard in the cold. Like at -30 C, it’s hard to go and put three hours of running in.”

McGovern has run one full marathon in the spring, the Boston Marathon, which he called “the mecca” for runners.

Alice Sherwin ran the full in Boston this spring and the half in Winnipeg Sunday.

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Training for the half was plenty tough enough, she said.

“I had a hard time training for the half after doing the full. My legs were very, very tired,” Sherwin said, laughing.

See the marathon results here.

jessica.botelho-urbanski@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbu