Back to the racing this weekend means back to the blogging tonight :D
I arrived at Wilmslow for the half marathon this morning, knowing that I was in good form, but questionable health due to a week full of struggling with a chest infection.
Despite my problems, I had completed every session throughout the week, and despite coughing and spluttering up all sorts of phlem and gunk during my 20 minute warm up run this morning, I made the decision that I was fit to race.
My target for this race had been to try and dip under 72 minutes for the first time and perhaps push on further and look for close to a 71:30 in the final couple of miles if I had the energy left in my legs.
I knew the course from running it last year, so I had an idea of what to expect - a quick, mostly downhill start, an undulating middle section, followed by a gradual incline into the finish.
To get my target time I needed to produce a performance with an average time of 5:29 per mile (or quicker!)
I tried to get in with a good sized pack early on in the race, and managed to do just that. The pace through the first mile was a tad fast, but that was to be expected due to the downhill nature of the start. After going through the 1 mile marker in 5:18 though, I managed to relax back into a nice rhythm and the following 6 miles were all in and around the 5:25 mark.
The course had timing matts, that recorded your splits as you moved through 10km, 10miles and of course, the finish. I went through 10km in 33:32, for 37th place.
Then came the tough section of the race for me, as I struggled between miles 8-10, with my pace dropping off from below 5 and a half minutes per mile to 5:40s for the next 3 miles, and the pack that I had been in up until this point began to stretch out and threatened to leave me behind. At this stage of the race, I was conscious that my early good start had now been undone slightly and my target time was in danger of slipping away.
I had wanted to pass through 10 miles in approximately 55 minutes, and I did manage to do just that - in fact 54:54 for ten miles is actually quicker than my PB pace for that distance! I also picked off a few positions, even though that period had been a hard one for me, going through in 32nd place.
I am always confident in my ability to push on in the latter stages of halves, as I proved at Inskip back in late January, and thankfully I managed to produce a fairly strong finish today too, the 5:22 for mile 13 giving me just enough time to pop over the line in a new PB time of 71 minutes and 54 seconds, for 27th position.
I made it through the race in one piece, and hopefully the cameraman at the finish line didn't catch a shot of me throwing up everywhere as I pulled up!!! But it was definitely worth it for the feeling and buzz of setting another new personal best, and celebrating with a pub lunch and a pint with mum, dad and Molly before the journey home.
