The Birthday I Ran My Best

The year I ran two personal records(PR) with the 2nd on the day I was born.

For most of 2024 I was chasing a number, not intentionally, but I started the year on a good foot and felt motivated to run more than any year. And why? Well, one of the popular 21k was on my birthday September 15th so I was motivated more than ever to prepare for that day. I had switched to training by power, using a method called Stryd with coach Ricardo Sanjur from Stryd Panama who knew how to use that training method, and slowly my running improved and very fast. I had not started the year training using the Stryd method, it was around June/July. In April I ran the half marathon in around 1 hour 35 minutes. A few weeks later I brought it down to about 1 hour 28 which was the first PR. I had not started the Stryd method so I was due for a pleasant surprise later that year. When I started working with Stryd Panama the method was very different so I had to adapt but in time my body started to respond positively. There was a time when I had to push very hard to run sub 5min/km and running sub 4m per km was the best I could do, now I was able to run sub 5 min at will. This was a big deal for me, and I started to believe something special was going to happen in September.

Then came September 15th, my birthday. There is something about racing on the day you were born, it feels less like a race and more like a gift I was about to give myself.

I remember working out the strategy and saving it to my Garmin. For the first time I started a race with confidence, focused on running another personal best. I was not concerned about being better than other runners because I had already achieved something many runners that year had not achieved which was running a personal record and I was now in much better shape to repeat running yet another personal record, the question was by how many minutes.

I went out controlled, trusting the power numbers instead of my excitement, holding myself back early so I would have something left for later. For a long stretch it felt almost easy, the training showing up exactly when I needed it. My feet in the Asics Metaspeed Sky Paris felt light and quick, and for some reason the same Asics I ran in April felt lighter.

But a half marathon always has its greatest test left for the end and somewhere in the middle I pushed a little harder than was the plan and nearing the last 4 kilometers my pace dropped for few seconds. Now imagine that, my average pace was in the sub 4 minutes per kilometers and I started to get concerned that maybe I did too much, my pace dropped to a sub 5 minute pace then with 2km left I pushed forward to pick up the pace again the sub 4 minute pace once more. And I remember as I made that last turn to enter the final 100m I began to see the official time 1hr 25 minutes and I knew that I made another PR close to Stryd's prediction. I not only ran a new PR but also came first in my category.

And then the finish. My official time was 1:25:13, and because my Garmin said the course measured a little long, my true 21k pace was closer to 1 hour 22 which is debatable but I still ran a new personal record that morning. From 1 hour 35 in April to this, on my birthday, was the kind of progress you can hardly believe while it is happening.

Crossing that line was a huge accomplishment for me and satisfaction doing it on my birthday, the feeling of having met the version of myself I had been training toward all year.

A personal record is really just proof of patience and commitment. I remember all those mornings waking up at 3:30am to hit the road and the strength training to complement my running. All that work I put in and got it all back.