It was a day in which records were broken, titles changed hands and personal bests were set. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't quite able to do that, but I certainly wasn't far off. It made for a day of mixed emotions for myself, as I managed to seal a place on the podium here for the first time, on the day that my junior record was smashed to pieces 5 years to the day on from me setting it.
Back then I was an unattached bit of a kid with only a handful of 10 mile training runs to my name. I didn't have a clue about pacing, or even if I would finish it, but somehow got around in 1:24:32, breaking the old record by some 8 and a half minutes! 5 years on and a young lad from Blackburn Harriers tore that particular record to pieces - beating it by some 9 minutes!
At the same time, I was able to set another little piece of history myself - and this one is one that can never be taken away from me, as I became the first Junior title holder to go on and take a place on the podium at the race.
In order to earn my top 3 position I had to beat some serious runners, as there was a quality front end assembled at the race once more. John Mason made his way over from Canada again, to try and de-throne Ben Fish, who was looking to win the race for the tenth consecutive year. My coach Rob Affleck was there too, with club mate Gary Pennington - on the back of his 2:29 marathon.
But it was Dave Rigby of Salford Harriers who ran home as a convincing winner, beating the field by over a minute to claim the title.
The early stages of the race saw all of the front 6 in a tight pack through he first mile, as everyone sized each other up and race tactics cam into the equation. The group began to break up through the second and third mile, as Rigby and Mason pulled away from Fish, with myself a bit further behind, ahead of Affleck and Pennington.
At mile four, I continued to be running strong and managed to pass Ben Fish and set off trying to keep Rigby and Mason in sight, which I managed to do as we approached the green at Wrea Green around 5.5 miles. I received a lot of encouragement from the spectators around the green and also from Richard Davies and Chris Barnes on their bikes and it focused my mind on making sure the gap to the next runner didn't get too big to close up. By this point Dave Rigby had broke clear of John Mason and was now out in front on his own.
I didn't panic, and didn't make a move too soon, instead gradually chipping away at the gap between myself and Mason, eventually catching him up at around the 8.5 mile mark and then moving ahead of him and into second place at around 9 miles. Once I was in second, I was determined that nobody would pass me, and for a short while even had a small belief that I could reign in the leader and close that gap too. Unfortunately I began to slow up from around mile 10.
In the last 5k, when I would have hoped for a strong finish, instead I tightened up a bit and my pace slowed up by approximately 10-15 seconds per mile. The weather deteriorated around this point too, which may have impacted on the times a bit. Still I managed to hang onto second position quite comfortably in the end, and just missed out on a new half marathon pb, finishing the race in 70:49.
My mile split times (bearing in mind I had targeted running at around 5:20 pace) were: 5:17, 5:07, 5:11, 5:15, 5:19, 5:23, 5:24, 5:26, 5:27, 5:29, 5:36, 5:33, 5:29 before running home the last 0.12 at 4:52 pace.
I am proud of my performance and would probably say that this is one of the best paced and tactically raced efforts that I have put together, particularly over this distance. It shows that my endurance is improving and that I am getting stronger. It also means that I am finally able to put the horror of Cardiff Half to bed at last.
Hopefully I will be able to continue to improve and kick on further from here after my holiday which is coming up soon!
Total mileage for the week: 55
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:30
Total mileage so far this month (June): 165
Total mileage so far 2016: 1665
Average miles per day 2016: 9.85
