I ran a half marathon off the of couch, here is the story

Long story ahead, time and TLDR at the end to avoid spoilers

About me 33y/o white male. Not a runner. I was more of a runner when I was in highschool, I was running 5km once in a while and pushed for a 10km at the end of it. In my early 20's I was working construction and roller blading often, I was also running an obstacle course (Spartan's, prison break or foam races (8-12 km)) once a year, off the couch, just for the thrill of it. (Even off the couch I was often in the top 10%) In my mid 20's I stopped doing them but picked up rock climbing and mostly did that instead of anything else. I wouldn't say I'm a pro climber at this point but I gotta mention that I do climb hard and often. At 25 I left construction and started tree planting which is a really good leg training and preparation for suffering. Tree planting is probably 8km of walking everyday, in steep mountains with heavy bags, in hindsight, was a really great training. At the beginning of the year I made a bingo card for the 2025 and decided to add "run a half marathon" on it. That's how it started. 2 weeks prior I bought a pair of running shoes, I googled some advice, and made a post on here asking for tips. I got some backlash from some people saying I should have trained but I was committed to it at this point. I even asked Deep seek about it with "Could I run a half marathon under 1:xx" (take a guess which time I asked if you dare) and the AI told me : "Who Could Possibly Do This Untrained?

The only people who might have a slim chance are those with an extremely high baseline of fitness from other sports and a previous running background. Think of a professional soccer player, a collegiate-level swimmer, or a high-level cyclist. Their cardiovascular engine is so powerful that they might be able to endure the cardio stress, but they would still be at a very high risk of musculoskeletal injury because their body isn't conditioned for the specific impact of running. For the average person who goes to the gym a few times a week or plays casual sports, this feat is effectively impossible to complete safely."

Well, game on, I said ! One week prior to the HM I decided to do a fitness check, I went on a 10km run to see what would be doable. I ran it under 55 min with the impression I could last a while at the rythme. That was it, that was the motivation I needed for my goals. Chatting with some friends with more experiences, I had 3 tiers goals, S tier: would be in between 1h45 and 1h50 A tier: in between 1h50 and 1h50 B tier: just under 2 h I didn't knew how the body would react and didn't knew how fast I would do it but the challenge was there now. For that last week I was carb fueling and hydrating as much as possible before the race.

The day of the race I started with a small but filling breakfast of potatoes and caffeine pills to wake me up since the race was early during the day. Showed up 45 min before the race, picked up my number and warned up my body and muscles. I didn't have any stretching plans for running but luckily there were enough people doing different stretches that I just followed them.

Now the race

Km 1-3 I follow a pacer and it felt great. I was looking around, waving at people, and had a great time Km 3-7 I passed the pacer since I thought I could go a bit faster. I still kept the pace that I thought was keepable for at least 15 km 7-13 was pretty uneventful, I read the sign that people were holding and looked at the landscape. Focused on my breathing and talked to myself in my head. Km 14 is where I had a little discomfort in my hips but it passed by, maybe I switched something on my posture that helped. Km 14-17 I was losing it slowly, the exhaustion was creeping on me but I had a boost of energy when I saw a new pacer in front of me. So I thought I could keep up with him and get a better time than expected I passed him with a regain of energy around km 19.5 but it barely lasted 300m before he passed me By km 20 I was running on fumes, heavy breathing, but i kept pushing since I was seeing the end soon. I had a final rush of mental energy when the finish line appeared but I had no energy to go faster, I just kept the pace that I had been running the whole thing

Writing this as I just finished the half marathon. Crossing the finish line i was overflowed with emotions, a sense of pride and adrenaline was flooding my body, the slow down that was carried by momentum and the sudden sensation of inflammation that started in my legs. They started to feel like jello but it didn't matter at that point, the race was over and the rest was on the horizon. I was laying on the ground, looking at the screen, looking at my time, joy flowed in, it was not what I expected. It was better than I could have anticipated, this was the feeling that you gave everything and that you managed the goal better than you could believe.

Writing this 1h after the HM After a warm shower, everything started to settle, the pain, the exhaustion, I felt like I just wanted to shut down and do absolutely nothing until I could feel like I had more energy or that my leg could feel better. Anything that I had to do felt overwhelming. The emotions in feeling is the intense need to curl into the fetal position and stay down. It reminds me of the first couple of shifts I did tree planting, the exhaustion that stacked and creeped up on you that you can't really stop. I know this feeling is temporary and I don't mind it for now.

After a few hours, a rest , refuelling with food, a nap, I felt better. The legs were doing okay, sore already but being able to walk easily but squatting wasn't an option.

The next morning was what you would expect, soreness in the legs and a bit in the back, ankles were stiff. But it's not something that I haven't been used to before. I kept stretching, massaging them when I could and fuelling with loads of proteins.

Things I wish I did. Carry some jelly packages for refuelling, I needed something for food and had some gummies but my mouth was too dry to be worth the effort.

My buttcrack had some chaffing and if I was to ever run again I would use some Vaseline to prevent that. I did it for my nipple and it was worth it.

TLDR : I ran a half marathon off the couch without any training or direction for it. Ran a fitness check off 10km the week before just to have an idea and ended up doing around 5min per km. I ran the HM I the next week and aimed for 5min /km and managed to keep that rythme even in exhaustion. The result of the race: 1h44,49. Just under the best I thought I could do from the fitness 10k Finished at position 148 out of 870 participants