Monday, Week 12

4 Miles, Easy

Sunday, Week 11

Race, Wilmslow Half Marathon

Prepared perfectly for race day by having a beer and half a bottle of wine on Friday night, and thus poking the embers of my cold back to life, so that I woke on Sunday morning with a lumpy sore throat.

Added to the facts that I slept on the living room floor to avoid waking the house, and that I lost an hour due to the beginning of British Summer Time, and it was amazing that I felt as good as I did when I lined up at the start, still ready to make an attempt on my half marathon pb.

I stood by the 1hr 20min sign, looking around me at the surprisingly unathletic looking elite runners, and sure enough as the race started I spent the first mile threading through people unlikely to crack 2 hours, let alone 90 minutes. Resorted to elbows once.

The first few miles went by well, once I'd calmed down, and was almost on target at 6 miles at 40 mins 22 secs.

Then it started falling apart just as it did 2 years ago. I put the slow 7th mile down to an incorrect measurement, but when the 8th was similarly slow, I lost my togetherness. By the time I reached 9 miles I has lost a minute and a half, and then there was the long hill past the church.

By now it was getting hot too. I managed to pull myself together enough to remind myself that:

a) This isn't the important race
b) I had felt at 6am that it wasn't even worth getting out of bed
c) I could still beat my record for Wilmslow

Picked it up a bit for the last couple of miles, and finished feeling Ok to be handed a heavy piece of glass, a classy T-shirt, and more importantly a Mars Bar.

Official time (which includes the 30 seconds getting to the line from the elite start) was 1hr 31min 31secs.

My watch time was 1:31:07 which apparently equates to a 3:09:58 marathon. That would be spot on.

Next race - 4 weeks time on Blackpool seafront.


Friday, Week 11

3 Miles, Slow

Thursday, Week 11

6 Miles, Slow