running 21km at 21 years old

I ran the Wizz Air Half Marathon in Cluj-Napoca on March 29, 2026. this one meant more than just a race.

why I signed up

in January I saw that my gym membership was about to expire and I had a weird thought: life already gives us enough things we have to do. school, deadlines, random responsibilities.

so I wanted to choose one hard thing on my own. something nobody forced me into. something that would scare me a little. signing up for this race felt like that first real self-challenge.

training (and the part that went wrong)

my training block was around 7-8 weeks total. it was not perfect.

in the last month, I missed 3 out of the last 4 weeks because of a tonsil intervention. I had mixed feelings the whole time. part of me knew I needed recovery. another part kept saying I would show up unprepared and fail.

because I could not train physically, I tried to prepare mentally. I kept visualizing race day, the pain points, the breathing, the finish. it was not ideal, but it gave me calm when I needed it.

24h before race day

the day before the race, I treated it like a rehearsal. I woke up at the same time I planned to wake up on race day. I copied the routine on purpose: wake up, food timing, moving around, and trying to keep my head quiet.

that 24h window helped me more than I expected. it made race morning feel familiar instead of chaotic.

race day

the race itself was a fight between body signals and inner voice. my initial target was around 2:30.

I finished in 2:11.

that gap still surprises me. in the final part I realized I had more left than I thought.

the hardest moment came after km 17. I stopped for a bathroom break, and after that my breathing got very fragile. I had to focus on taking air in a very controlled way, otherwise I felt like throwing up. to keep concentration, I started following the white road lane lines one by one. it sounds small, but that visual anchor kept me in the race.

finish line

the crowd noise hit me first. then I looked around and saw all the people finishing around me. in my head there was one sentence on repeat: you did it.

pride, accomplishment, surprise - all at once. and the best part is that I finished strong.

race metrics

x-axis: distance split (km 1 to 21.6)
y-axis: toggleable series (pace, heart rate, power, cadence)

Wizz Air Half Marathon - effort profile

if January me saw this result, he would not believe it. but I think this race proved one thing for me: if I choose the challenge myself, I commit differently.

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. — Joseph Campbell