Barcelona Half Marathon - 21k

Being in shape and being able to perform well have a delicate balance in life. After a busy week with long days, less sleep, training less and feeling tired on the rest days before the race, I already had my doubts before I started and with all done I still am happy with a 1h26m58s. The race started at 8h45 in the morning so I got up early to prepare and around 8 a.m. I arrived near the start and since it was not too cold I changed into my running clothes, stored my bag and started with the warmup in the Parc de Ciutadella. With about ten minutes to go I left the park to enter my box and nicely on time we were shot away. The first kilometers were very regular passing in 3m45 and 7m30. Then we went slightly uphill running along the Avinguda Paral.lel and I maintained good pace on the first 5k passing in 19m01. During the 6th kilometer I lost pace for a while picking it up during the 7th, but the running in general was not very smooth and I slowed down a little and passed the 10k in 38m46. I still could not maintain pace and most kilometers passed in above 4 minutes so running a Personal Best today was impossible. I passed the 15k in 59m21 and just held on to pass the 20k in 1h21m50 and a last kilometer near 5 minutes. Next is the marathon and after the experience of today I know rest is going to be important in the coming weeks.