My first half-marathon done! How did it go? Well, funnily enough, the worst-case scenario that I outlined in my previous post is exactly how it played out: At close to the 15k mark, I had to downgrade my run/walk pace to a slow walk for the remainder of the race. On multiple occasions, I tried to will myself to power through and start running again: "You got this, Mansoor! Push on through! You're almost there!" But any attempt to resume a run quickly had my legs massively cramping up, and my mind going, "Nope! That won't do..." Of course, when I saw my kids at the finish line, I ran the last 100m or so to give them a good show and some high fives, while suppressing cries of "Dear God!" as my legs seized up again at the finish line. And yet, the day after, I was already romanticizing the experience. The cool breeze. The sun glistening on the lake. The encouraging supporters along the way (many with funny signs: "You're moving faster than the TTC!"). It was great! So what's next?

Anyone who knows me knows that I love games. I don't mind (and can even enjoy) losing repeatedly so long as I can look back at a loss and figure out what I could have done differently. Which brings me to what probably seems like a completely unrelated topic: Hades 2! It just came out a few weeks back, and I've been enjoying the heck out of it. For the uninitiated, Hades 2 is a roguelike -- a kind of a game in which you tackle the same challenge over and over, pushing to do better each time. On each "run", you're dealt a number of random upgrades to choose from and build upon, and you also get to gradually build up a base of permanent upgrades. It's easy to lean into a particular style of playing that you previously had success with, but the fun of any roguelike is experimenting with different approaches, sometimes finding success with competely off-the-wall strategies. And of course, the more you play, the more you (the player) level up at playing the core game. Eventually you find yourself able to make it much deeper into your runs, even with a vanilla, upgrade-less build.

How does this relate to running? Well, my initial attempt at a half-marathon felt like my first "run" (no pun intended) of a roguelike. I want to strive for the same goals -- get healthier, get faster -- but I want to try approaching it differently over the next few months. For now, I've started on a three-month 10k plan (ditching the run/walk method) with some light strength training, and I'm excited to see how the change-up works out!