HM2 Race Day!

Sunday 11th October 2015. My second half marathon...

I prepared my kit the night before, deliberating on the forecast temperatures of 9-12oC, and whether long sleeved or short sleeved tops would be more appropriate. Long sleeved won. In the morning, my family dropped me off to the university for the start. Long sleeves and reusing my foil blanket were helpful for the chilly wait to start.

I've always run alone, mainly for the practical reason that my runs have to slot around family life. I'm not routine about my plans so have never co-ordinated around anyone else. The first half of the race saw in a new experience for me as I met with a Brownie mum in the starting wave. We knew we were doing the same race, and we were aiming for a similar time zone, so it suited us to set off together.

I was aiming for 2:20:00 and worked out that an average pace of 6:38 mins/km would get me my target time. Starting off gently downhill with a pace around 6 min/km was faster than planned, but felt comfortable. People were passing faster than us, but having a companion was helping to resist the temptation to rush and risk burning out. At some points, I was checking my watch and easing back slightly constantly remaining faster than my target pace and practice efforts.

The early miles passed easily, a loop around a park, down a main residential road and into the city. The water station at mile 3 was a pleasant surprise. A few sips and on we went. We were now onto the reverse of the 10k route. I don't normally notice that the city centre is on a slope, and this was the uphill direction! Out of the city centre to the Pride Park commercial area. A bit dull, but we had a second park awaiting us. Around mile 5, I had a twinge in my left ankle. Not one of my regular niggles. I realised that with the route being a partial road closure of one way traffic, constantly running on the camber of the road with my left foot aiming up was the trigger. In the park, the flatter footpath helped the niggle to fade. As we approached the 6 mile station I had the first of my 3 gels that I'd tried successfully in training. My plan was to have one at around an hour, another at about 1.5 hours, and have a 3rd in reserve if I needed a boost towards 2 hours.

Through the scenic park past the lake and out the back to the River Derwent. Along here I decided that it wasn't going to get much better than this for a little diversion to a bush. I parted company from my partner for a moment, then managed a burst of speed to catch her up. No time lost from my average pace. By the end of the path she was needing to reduce the pace and we parted company. Back to the outskirts of Pride Park, then along the bus lane parallel to the A52 with traffic banking up from the restricted traffic into the city.

I kept the pace consistent. I began passing other people rather than being passed. One couple that had been in sight for some time had the well weathered male runner toying with the event, running ahead, looping around keeping his pace down to his partner. When I passed, I joked that he was making a marathon out of it, it turns out that he'd done the Berlin Marathon 2 weeks earlier. This was an easy recovery run for him!

We skirted the edge of the city. The twilight zone as geographers like to call it. The runners were well spread now. At points where there were bends ahead, no runners were in sight. At roughly 700 runners, this has been the smallest event I've participated in. As we were in an uninspiring industrial road, there were few supporters and no residents to cheer us along. I always knew that Stores Road had great potential to be a tedious mile. I was grateful for the good natured marshals, and the promise of my family waiting for me at the end of the road.

My family cheered me on, and buoyed by their presence, my pace had a little surge. I passed a lady who commented about where had I got my speed from at that stage. I said I could collapse when I was out of sight from them! I didn't though. I returned to my typical pace, still faster than anticipated. A brief stop to wriggle my toes and re-do my laces, then on past the rugby club towards the third park. I took my second gel before I began to lag. The park was busy with normal Sunday activity on the football pitches and people walking on the paths. At the end of the park, I got a special Brownie hug. I told her that her mum was coming up behind.

Another skirt back to the edge of the city before linking back to the original main road. I was still passing people out. Still keeping a consistent pace. Still feeling decent. The most notable uphill lay ahead in these final couple of miles. I began to sing. Mainly The Beautiful South and The Beatles. I used to sing when I walked to school, and found that remarkably few pop songs are suitable for singing with no musical backing! I returned to my ancient repertoire from the 20th Century. I didn't care if I sounded a bit crazy. I was getting more breathless, so singing was a way of not burning out.

The mile 13 marker. The final 0.1 of a mile, and what a beast! The hills had been rather subtle, apart from the final spurt up the drive to the university. Normally I can put on a final sprint when I can see that there's nothing else to save myself for, but the gradient took all my effort to maintain my pace, and the finish was cruelly lurking out of sight, tucked behind a bend.

At last it was done! I had been successful in completely running a half marathon. My watch revealed a time of 2:12:59, with the final chip time being 2:12:35, smashing my target of 2:20 and last years (hillier) HM time of 2:34:44. I proudly put on my finisher's t-shirt and medal, and set off to the playground to meet my family. As I walked down, my companion approached the finish line, several minutes faster than her target time.

I genuinely enjoyed this event. The route was varied, with the duller sections being counterbalanced by plenty of greenery. The marshals were encouraging. I had several pleasant encounters with other runners. I enjoyed running with company for the first time and it helped us both to pass the first half and prevent monotony sinking in. My training had prepared me to run in good time without injury. Being the first race of this event meant that the numbers were low and the runners were "serious" regular runners, many of which belonging to clubs. I'd performed favourably.

Recovery has been going well. I kept moving gently for the rest of the day. The next day, my knees were feeling a bit fragile and bruised, but that was all, and I went to Buggy Babes as usual, although took it gently and kept it low impact. I've gone 5k this week on a gentle run/ walk, just going by feel. A vast improvement on hobbling for two weeks and digging out the pelvic support from last years race!

I'm permitting myself to feel somewhat smug!

HM2 wk 12 Tapering!

Race day is within the week! Just a few easy runs left to go before I get to the start line.

I've really enjoyed training this year. There's been a few duff runs, either through tiredness, feeling grotty or unfortunate planetary alignments, but on balance I've been enjoying the runs and feeling that this is an attainable project. I've previously commented about being able to control my pace on the long slow runs. The 2 hour runs have gone well, running by far the majority of them. One was more of a run/walk due to a cold which was understandable, and I'm pleased that I got out there for the required time. My pace has been controlled and although I've covered less distance than might be hoped, the terrain I've been training on has been much more hilly than the mostly flat race route. The profile goes down from the start, stays mostly flat for the majority, then goes uphill for the last 3 miles. Living near the crest of a hill means I'm well used to huffing my way up at the end of my runs. Compared to last year  I've also found that recovery has been easier with less tiredness, aches and niggles. I'm hoping that I won't be hobbling for 2 weeks after this HM!

Since my first run, I've kept a spreadsheet of all my runs. I've done about the same amount of training runs as last year, again the ones that have been missed off most have been the intervals. Given that the first month of training was somewhat interrupted, I feel that I've caught up well. In recent weeks, I've managed a few complete weeks from my plan.

So what next? My current guess is that much of this month will be a rest phase based on all my previous races! Then we'll be low on daylight. The local 10k should be on in the spring, so I think it's most likely and practical that like last year, I'll concentrate on speed for shorter distances. I'd better be looking out for 5k Santa runs as well. I've got a few variables lined up in the ether, so repeating this strategy keeps running practical around life, and keeps my options open. When I said "not yet" last time round, but kept my body used to running for an hour, it meant that it was "easy" to increase the distance this summer, even when the early weeks of training couldn't fit around the plan. I can safely say that I'm not doing the 2016 London Marathon, or any other marathon in the near future, and rather unlikely to do an HM in the next 6 months!

Roll on Sunday 11 October, I'm as ready as I'll ever be...