My First Half Marathon: How I Lost Sight of the Goal and Got Injured
By Quentin van Bentum • April 2025
It's October 2023, I signed up for my first marathon, scheduled for April 2024. Since I had never run a race before, I figured it would be smart to run a half marathon in February as a warm-up. In theory, it was a great idea. My execution not so much...
Why I decided to sign up for a Marathon.
Throughout my life, I’ve always loved sports — hiking, cliff jumping, baseball, you name it. Running was something I did occasionally for years, but never seriously. Most of my runs were between 3–6 km, more for the feeling than for any training purpose.
Still, the running world fascinated me. I had never run a race before, and I wanted to know what it felt like to be part of one. And when I set goals, I like to aim high, so I signed up for the 2024 Rotterdam Marathon.
With that came the idea to also run the 2024 Schoorl Half Marathon. It felt like the perfect way to experience what it’s like to run in a crowded race, before stepping into the biggest marathon in the Netherlands.
Training For the Half Marathon.
With the signup done and a new pair of Hoka training shoes, and a polar pacer running watch, it was time to start training. Looking back, one of my biggest mistakes was not doing enough research on how to train. I didn’t follow a structured plan, just a rough idea of what training should look like.
In the first few months, my training lacked consistency. Still, I managed to rack up some decent mileage, even if it was all over the place. Surprisingly, my body handled it well, and I started to feel more confident, maybe even overconfident.
During my preparation, I ran two half marathons as training runs, during these I trained with energy gels for the first time and they gave me a huge confidence boost, but looking back, I pushed way too hard in both. And yet, somehow, I stayed healthy.
So, my training was inconsistent, unstructured, and based more on how I felt and what I felt like doing, than structured workouts and weirdly enough, it worked. But I’d learn later that just because it worked then, didn’t mean it would keep working.
Final preparation and the temptation of speed.
January 2024 — just two weeks before the half marathon.
Originally, I had no intention of buying super shoes. But then I stumbled across a great deal on a pair of Saucony carbon-plated shoes, and I couldn’t resist.
After a few test runs in them, I felt even more confident. Throughout my training, I hadn’t been aiming for a specific race time, the goal was just to experience running a race. But with the shoes under my feet and the race getting closer, I started thinking… maybe I could go for 1:45.
It was an optimistic target, and one that would mean pushing hard from start to finish. Looking back, it wasn’t the time goal that was wrong, it was the mindset. That race was never supposed to be about time. But the adrenaline and the excitement of my first race got the better of me, and I locked onto that 1:45 like it was my mission.
Time to Race
February 11, 2024. Race day.
After a short taper in the final weeks, I felt more than ready. I had a good breakfast, felt super fit, and made my way to the starting line. Then it was go time.
The first 3 kilometers felt a bit rough. I had no experience running in a large group and struggled to find my rhythm. But once I settled in, I started feeling more and more confident and the kilometers flew by.
I didn’t check my watch much. I was caught up in the adrenaline of the atmosphere, letting the crowd energy carry me while pushing my body to its limit.
Around halfway, I realized I was still on track to hit my 1:45 goal, but my heart rate was already above 180 bpm. Slowing down didn’t feel like an option, so I kept pushing, even as fatigue started to creep in.
With just 1 kilometer left, I was completely destroyed, but somehow found some more energy. I pushed through the final stretch and crossed the finish line with a time of 1:44:36.
I was extremely proud. A few months earlier, I never would’ve thought I could run a half marathon that fast in my first official race.
The race went better than I ever expected. But maybe it went too well… for my own good.
Losing sight of the real goal.
Race over. Time to recover… or so I thought.
The truth was, the full marathon was only eight weeks away. Once the high from finishing the half wore off, the reality set in, I didn’t have much time. I had to keep training.
But then something felt off.
Just four days after the half marathon, I went for an easy run. It hurt. A lot. Sharp pain shot through both shins, this wasn’t normal soreness. I knew something was wrong.
Still, the marathon was approaching fast. I had never run more than a half, and in my mind, I had to keep building distance. So, I pushed through. I kept running for two more weeks, ignoring the pain. Terrible mistake.
The pain didn’t go away. It got worse to the point where I couldn’t run at all. With only six weeks left until the marathon, I was completely sidelined.
I had developed Shin Splints in both legs, and not the mild kind. It was bad.
At that point, I had no choice but to stop running. For a moment, I even considered letting go of the marathon goal and moving it to later in the year.
But something lit up in me.
I wasn’t going to quit. I was going to run this marathon, no matter what.
What I learned.
Looking back, I made a lot of mistakes — I didn’t follow a structured plan, I lost sight of what I was actually training for, and I ignored pain during runs. That combination led to a serious injury.
If I could give any advice to someone training for a race, it would be this:
Train with structure. Don’t push when you don’t need to. And never, ever ignore pain.
After going through all of this, the inconsistent training, the injury, the stress. I knew I never wanted to repeat the same mistakes again. More importantly, I didn’t want anyone else to make them either.
That’s why I built my running plan generator.
It’s a free tool that helps you train smarter. It creates a personalized plan based on your fitness level, goals, and availability, so you can train with structure, avoid injuries, and actually enjoy the process.
👉 Try the plan generator here — and give your next race the right preparation.
In the next blog post I will continue the story on the road to the marathon and how I may or may not have finished it 😉
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