I made the 12 hour round drive very worthwhile by recording another big PB of 71.20 – a whopping 70 seconds faster than what I have ever ran before, here’s how the day unfolded…
I was confident in my fitness and the training I had done but I still wasn’t too sure on how I would go as my training is very much focused on the marathon just now so whilst feeling very strong in my running I wasn’t too sure how fast I was over this shorter distance. I had said to people in the week leading up to the race that I would be happy with anything between 72 – 72.30 which would still give me a good PB.
Saturday morning I was up at 6am to get my run in before going to work for a shift and then straight in the car to Bath. The journey down wasn’t too bad, just long! We got to the hotel about 7.30 so had plenty of time to relax and eat the pasta which I had bought at M&S services on the way down. I had a rough night’s sleep, tossing and turning and waking up a lot which is not like me as I normally sleep like a dead person!
I ventured out to do my warm up and ran down the first mile of the course to get a feel for it. On turning back for my return I notice a pesky little head wind on the drag back up. Nothing major but I suspected that it would feel like gale force 8 at the end of a half marathon!
15 minutes before the start we were ushered up to the startline. We were allowed to do some strides but the area available was only about 30 yards long so couldn’t really get any decent strides done. With 5 minutes to go we were stripped off and standing on the startline. As I mentioned earlier it was a bit of a chilly morning and we were starting to get cold on the line. A guy on a mike was blabbering on about something but we couldn’t actually hear what he was saying. Thankfully we eventually heard him start a countdown from 5 and we were off.
There is a righthand turn about 120m into the race so I made sure I got into a good position straight away to avoid getting tripped or cut off at this corner. From then on I settled into a good rhythm . I was lying in 4th position with one Kenyan out of sight and another plus Susan Partridge not too far ahead. Going through the city centre and up the hills I slipped back a little but as once we got onto the long straight I started to pick back at Susan and Jane (Kenyan) I hadn’t looked at my spluts so far and had intended not to but for some reason I had a glance when it bleeped 4 miles and nearly died when I saw a 5.10 split pop up! I knew I was running fast but not that fast. Good thing was, I was feeling strong with it! I continued to try and pull the two girls back but just couldn’t bridge the gap. I was running pretty much solo along the back straight and therefore taking the headwind by myself. Thankfully just before 10k a group of lads caught me and I managed to tuck in behind them. I went through 10k in 33.16 and kind of panicked a bit. I knew this was too fast and worried that I may pay for it later in the race. I made the conscious decision to ease off the pace for a bit but after dropping to a 5.25 mile it felt too slow so I pushed on again. I got back to running around 5.20-24 mile splits depending on the hills etc and I started to catch some of the guys who had just gone past me.
At 8 miles I was running with a lad and we really helped each other on. Hitting the wind into the long back straight again I managed to took in behind the lad for a bit. He must have thought that I was dropping off the pace as he started shouting some encouragement. I took my turn taking some wind, but let’s face it; I’m not much of a protector!
When I finished I looked at my watch and saw 1.11. In my head I recorded this as 71.11 which was an 80 second PB and much faster than I thought I would do. However, when I came to the presentation my official time was given as 71.21. At first I was raging and about to challenge this as no way could there be a 10 second difference between my watch and my official time. A second or two yes but not 10! Anyway, on looking at my watch again it did actually say 1:11:22 so I apologised and accepted their faster time and made a mental note to learn to read my watch better in future!! :)
All in all a good day at the office and a good confidence lifter going into my final phase of training for Brighton. I am now very excited to see how I can convert this time into the full marathon. I am fully aware that a fast half marathon doesn’t always convert into a fast marathon but due to the strength and marathon focus I have placed on my training I am confident that I can convert it well.
Next up is the Northumberland Half Marathon next Sunday where I plan on running at marathon pace tempo and then carrying on for an extra 3 miles to make it up to a 16 mile tempo. So if anyone is aiming for a sub 75 minute half marathon next week, come find me and we can help each other out! The week after I will be doing my longest training run of 26.2 miles and then over the Easter weekend I will do the Good Friday relays as part of a longer session and the North Tyneside 10k after running 14 miles to get there! Then its taper time and allowing all of the hard work to come through ready for the big one on 14th April!