My First Half Marathon at 40 | The Big Half 2026

I ran my first half marathon at 40 at The Big Half in London, finishing in 3:01:41. A few months earlier, I was over 126kg and had only just started running properly. This race was the next big milestone in my beginner running journey — and it definitely didn’t go perfectly. In this video, I break down my first half marathon experience at The Big Half, including my pacing mistakes, fuelling, race strategy, what happened around 15–16K, and what I learned from running 21.1km for the first time. I went out too hard, paid for it later in the race, and learned a lot about pacing, endurance and how different a half marathon feels compared with training runs. I also talk about: preparing for my first half marathon running The Big Half in London pacing and fuelling mistakes what happened when my legs started to go my official finish time of 3:01:41 what I learned before my next half marathon I’m documenting what it looks like to start running at 40, lose weight, train for longer races, and eventually build towards the marathon. I’m not a running coach and I’m not pretending to be an expert. I’m learning all of this in real time — the training, races, mistakes, running shoes, Garmin data, fuelling and everything in between. There are plenty of channels showing you what good runners look like. This one is about what happens while you’re trying to become one. Next up: Saucony Run Shoreditch Half Marathon. #halfmarathon #TheBigHalf #RunningAt40 #BeginnerRunner #RunningJourney #LondonRunning #HalfMarathonTraining #WeightLossJourney #MarathonTraining