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Moraghan Training - Stevie G
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Perfect conditions, and a good chat on the way. Little in parking problems to report I'm afraid, and parked up 2 minutes from the race HQ by 9am.
Very good conditions today. Quick warm up with Philip, then onto the start line, telling SG he needs to get himself further to the front!
Started well - possibly too well - and all OK until mile 7, with 5M in 29:38 and 10k in about 36:58. Then at the mile 8 drinks station, a small sip made me retch and then the wheels started to come off. 10M was done in about 1:00:30, meaning the sub 1:20 was unlikely, but sub 1:21 was pretty certain, even with increasingly tired and painful legs. Then, bang on 13 miles, on the very last corner, uncontrollable retching brought me to a halt, whihc then made my stomach cramp. Really had to fight to get going again - which got me a massive cheer anyway - but crossed the line too far the wrong side of 1:21, with 1:21:24 for 127th place!
Bit disappointed to be honest, but can at least take some positives from it - official sub 30 5m and sub 37 10k should be on the cards later this year.
The plan for this was quite simple: sub 1:30. I am 52 and that is 75.7% WAVA and my best recent run is 75.2% WAVA for a 19:55 parkrun so that is a little step up but it was to be a fully raced effort and parkruns tend to be half raced and half training.
Got a lift with Bus driving and SG nervous passenger and managed to get there despite all the roadworks on the M40 junction 4 and in Wokingham town centre itself and parked on a housing estate a few hundred metres from the start. Brief warm-up (about a mile) and all felt fine. I had taken 2 ibuprofen last night and 2 more this morning to ensure I was pain-free in my feet and had not run Wed through Fri (holiday seeing the kids spread around the country) and just a very easy 5 miles yesterday to shake out the legs from a few days driving.
Found the sub 1:30 marker board behind the start line and lined up. Good weather for a half, maybe a bit cool but no wind and no rain. 1:30 is 6:51.9 pace so I had a plan to run at 6:50 which was 5 miles in 34:10 and 10 in 68:20 with an idea of maybe 34 and 68 dead for a little buffer to see the last section home.
The first mile is always a bit swift so 6:29 didn't freak me out and then 6:34 and a 6:30 followed. I was running easily so trusted to many years' training and racing and carried on. The course has two motorway bridges to cross on the way out and then the same on the way back in reverse and 3 miles marks the end of the second bridge (and so the start of the bridges coming back). 6;35 and 6:28 for miles 4 and 5 so 5 came up in 32:37 so about a minute and a half up on schedule.
In a race like Wokingham you will always have a load of people running their own race, so some running at MP as a training run, some starting slow and speeding up, others fast and slowign down. Mile 6, 7 and 8 were all about doing what I wanted to, so letting the faster ones by and passing the slower one and the splits came out at 6:32, 6:28 and 6:25. 8 miles in 52:12 so the best part of 38 minutes to do the last 5.1 and I knew sub 90 was a given all bar a catastrophic crash. Mile 9 felt OK in 6:35 but mile 10 was laboured, 6:47. 10 miles in 65:35 and 3 and a bit to go.
The route is now tracing back the first 3 miles and is net uphill (albeit with some downhill sections as well). I started to feel a bit of a stitch and my back hurt for a while and everything seemed hard. 6:59 for mile 11 (which has the most uphill) and it was slow but I was quite happy with that as it was only a few seconds down on 1:30 pace and I had minutes in hand. The uphill part seemed to give me a second breath (maybe it was just takign the uphill part easier that helped) but the rhythm was back and a 6:51 and a 6:43 got me to 13 miles and 25 seconds for the odd 0.1 for a chip time of 1:26:35 and very happy. Over the last few miles the maths was definitely getting hard and I was thinking that I should scrape a high 1:27 so it was odd to see the official clock still on 1:26.xx as I crossed the line.
Overall very happy. My aims for 2018 were sub-20 5k, sub-90 half and 2018 miles overall so 2 ticked off already. May have to review the 5k target as sub-19 may be on the cards.
So, today was the rearranged MK winter half. Got dropped off early, luckily got on the start line in good time and avoided the big toilet and baggage queue. The V45 LBAC record is 1.17.07, was hoping to use this as a more interesting Sunday run, plus it’s the LBAC club champs race.
So thought I’d do 5.50 minute miling to start with then wind it up to come home in the 1.16’s? Good hard run type thing. So started out faster than expected, 2 miles covered in 11.02 and feeling ok. Placings wise, the winner from MK had ‘gone’ and I was following ‘Dave’ and Ben F from Redway who had done 71.xx before but isn’t fit at the moment. So on past 4 miles and the missus and the obligatory hi-5 with my son, watching with the in laws. Think it was still about 90 secs ahead of schedule on 22 mins or so. Had a couple of talks to myself..am I going too fast? Will I last? But decided to crack on, knowing that I tend to improve once I’m past the 10 mile mark. By this point Ben had dropped off, replaced by Paul from Ampthill as we went through 6 miles in about 33.45. So on through the red ways to 9 miles I had dropped Paul and Dave by about 10-20 metres. I couldn’t be arsed to keep working out the times by that point, but still going ok.
So from 11 onwards you are back on a bit rooty path by the canal back to the finish. Decided to try and push it to make sure I was clear in 2nd. Came into the finish area and was annoyingly just outside my PB in 1.13.51. Happy enough to be first V40 and 2nd overall. As I feared, prizes were shite..a hoody, little plaque, water bottle.
Hey ho, but 1,500 people paying £25-£30..so that’s a bit stingy isn’t it? Anyway. Hopefully SG’s report will be in now
Reg - shame the lergy caught up with you, but a very strong 10k in the mix is not to sniffed at after bugger all running training!
Philip - good work, and well inside your target (you sandbagger
I've felt like shite all afternoon - stomach churning and can't eat.
If it's taking SG this long to post, it's going to be an epic report!
Bus, shame about the 13 mile incident, you were clearly going well. x post, hope you feel better soon.
Phil, it's even better when the hoped for times are beaten out of sight.
Reg, considering the injury issues that's a real bonus.
Simon, you're quite correct, considering the entry fee takings, those prizes are total shite. My club holds a 10k race with a max of 250 runners paying about £15 and the prize list is way better.
🙂
Nice snuck in half marathon there Simon! Understated as always! As if you were ever settling for a 1hr 17 run out
Phil, I didn't think you were 1hr 30 material. It wasn't that long ago we'd go an easy run not far off that. Good to see it was more a pick a big round number, and see you miles under.
Bus, from what you've said about where you were at different miles, you were going great guns. No idea if it was "too" great guns and the tail off that happens in that boat, or whether it was just one of those things. Confident attempt to 10miles either way, so promises a lot on the other splits! The beauty of doing the longest race first!
Reggie, a good and brave attempt from yourself after some recent woes! Takes heart that does.
Riighht...come back in 45mins or so and i'll have the report up
Right, so we all know what happened at the Wycombe half in July 2015. A massive surprise, even with that mystery "costochrondritis" thing aside, as that year I’d already done Wokey in 1.17.40 in Feb, and followed it up with a 1.17.03 at Reading in March. - I was going nicely.
That drama and long follow up knocked everything for ages
, and
it basically took until a year later to test even parkruns out, and that was a
6month tour of those. Last year went well, 19 races, but mostly the short
stuff. A few relays and Marlow in the 5ish mile terrain, a low standard field
10k, and a cautious 7miler being the process of getting my head round that I
was up to racing flat out again. The cross country series felt like another step
forward.
However, I knew deep down that I needed to race a half marathon again, to feel 100% back. Not getting round one, not tempo-ing one, but racing one in a time fitting what I should be doing.
Therefore, Wokingham felt like a perfect fit. Bus and Phil would be lift buddies and support, it was a Datchet club event guaranteeing 30 or so clubmates there, and loads of local buddies would either be racing or supporting. Perfect opportunity.
The nerves arrived in a huge way getting up on Saturday, that's Saturday morning!! but luckily I had a drive to a Wycombe away to take my thoughts elsewhere. Sat night and especially this morning it got real though, it was time.
I tried to remember that this would be my 27th half marathon, and 25 of the previous ones had gone well versus my level at the time. I’d done 6x15milers, and put in some good sessions with both the Dashers and solo. I tried not to pay too much attention to some of the wild predictions on here, and the 1hr 20 I'd picked on the site was similar to what Phil had done, pick a nice round number that would be a "decent" result.
However, my designated plan was to try and beat 6 min miling each mile, and see where that took me. That'd be a tidy 1.18.36 if I made it round, but I didn't want to either limit things, or go too ambitious. A first half marathon back after so long isn't the time to be a hero.
The authorities (I would have lazily said "council" but I'm sure Bus would pick me up on it!) in their infinite wisdom had decided to shut a massive Wycombe junction for the weekend (and next 2!) , meaning we needed a back road for the first few miles.
Bus the driver, Phil rightly saying me the nervous passenger in the front, and Phil providing the calming witticisms in the back.
(Ed, come on son, how many posts are you gonna milk this for, that's a full post, and you haven't even got out of Wycombe yet!
)
Ahem, so off we went, made excellent time that I think even surprised Bus, and we were in Wokingham.
We're absolute planning legends we are, so none of this park a mile away in the designated car parks nonsense for us, but instead a genius residential road right at the back of the race village.
Slightly made awkward by the authorities (I would have lazily said "council" but I'm sure Bus would pick me up on it!) in their infinite wisdom had decided to shut half the town off, so we had to do a random route!
Nicely parked up, I'd remembered the fun we had a few years ago with the same car squad, waiting in a toilet queue for Bus...only to realise 15mins in that he wasn't still struggling with the biggest unleashing of all time, but had actually forgotten us, and buggered off for a warm up
With our
gear in his car and about 30mins to the start. 
Have to laugh now.
THIS time, the baggage tent was utilised, just to be safe.
Excellent pre race vibe, felt super relaxed all of a sudden, and enjoyed loads of chats with the Dasher crew. Reggie’s in and around, he’s not sure what to expect with his recent woes. I make a mental note to not be put off if he does come past at some stage even if he’s not on top of his game.
I get the key “unloading” job sorted (absolutely destroying a portaloo – ED, really?), and got a nice 1.5 mile warmup in with our top man James and a chap called Ben, who I do wonder if we were running at his actual HM pace
He was too polite to mention it if we were! (Takes me back to first
meeting Lit, and not realising my warmup pace was something like her MP at the
time!)
Back into the race village, a bit startled to hear "the man" call 10mins to the start. HECK, it's starting to get real. Smiling and waving at people has been fun and cruising warmups, but now, there's a bloody half marathon to do!!
Luckily the time guy was quite early, and so I enjoyed about 10mins of squeezing miniscule quantities of myself into bushes (ED - is this necessary detail?)
To the start line then. A strange scene trying to find a sensible place to start. I couldn't see Alistair from Wargrave, who is usually good for a sensible start and regular pacing job. Made sure I stayed away from the front few rows, much to Bus's chagrin. Hello to Sam, looking posery calm as always in shades, and after some ushering of James, (who joined "Sandbag FC" by putting a nice round number 1hr 15 down - when clearly way faster) into a sensible position, I took up a position that felt sensible.
Gun/buzzer/some guy shouting goes (can’t be sure!), and we’re off. Usual not entirely sure that you’ve got the exact second you pass the mat right for the important button click, and we’re off.
Reign things in, keep it sensible, remember Ric saying take a certain percentage off the start to avoid overcooking it. What was the percentage I try and remember, oh stuff it, just run!
Out to the gate, slight down for 200metres, slight up for 200metres, and we’re onto the course proper! Check the watch very quickly, has me at about 5.55 pace, behave I think – better be quicker than that! Continue, and we’re up to the first bunch of supporters. Cute girl from Datchet (can i get away with that knowing some Datchet types read this? Sod it, I’ll risk it), and Jonny are there for the support. It’s nice, it feels good, I’m back!
What’s the watch got to say for itself? 5.44! And that’s a considered start. Ok, that’s fine, banks a bit, and it is a slight downhill.
Sam’s ahead of me. Are we going to have one of those races where we run 4-5miles together here again? It’s my 6th Wokingham, and it’s happened at least twice before. We’ll see later I think.
Enjoying being back on the half marathon scene and it feels alright, that pace where you’re not smashing yourself, but are going what feels the right pace for the distance.
Mile and a half I think, Reggie comes past. Refer back to my mental note of not letting it affect anything, I have my plan, and you never know how good anyone else is feeling, he might be feeling great, and putting in a shift worthy of his cracking XC stuff I think.
Mile 2 up in 5.55, that’s alright, not as fast a stretch as the first mile, and more than fine for the overall plan.
Starting mile 3, Sam and Reg seem to be creeping away a bit, perhaps 30metres down the road, if that happens I’m comfortable with it I think. This is the mile with the motorway bridge down, that you see the climb on in 7 miles time. There must also be some sort of climb, as I suddenly find myself right on their tail.
Reg can sense my presence, “smell me or hear me?” I ask, having dosed up on the deep heat. He’s seen the outline of my shorts. (a taster into the sort of banter you get 3miles into a half marathon)
5.46 for mile 3, we’ve banked a bit more, but I’m aware that’s the fast mile.
Get to 5miles well I tell myself, a nice 5miles to get established in the race, 5miles to consolidate, and 5k to hold on.
5.53,5.52 for the next 2miles, and I’m liking the consistency of those miles, and I feel Sam and Reggie drop off a little here. No idea if it’s by a gnat’s cock, or more though.
I’m trying not to give anything more thought that consistently taking 6min miling down, and feeling good.
The quality feels quite high this year, and people are going by every so often for a long time. Estimate I’m probably looking at something in the 60-70s this year, but as Moz once said, get it raced, and dissect it later. Some of the people coming past don’t especially look fast runners, but you can’t always judge, and some of them will definitely drop off later in a big way.
I’m taking splits manually mostly, but often the mile is coming out dead on anyway. A couple of times I take the split to find that it’s a few seconds, but we’ll sort that out later. I just need to not get confused seeing a split or 2 higher than the mile count!
Mile 7 comes out at a very pleasing 5.47, so it must have had a cheeky little down spell in it, nothing major, but enough to get the legs going quicker. It’s a good boost, and I’m starting to realise that I’m going well, but nothing is even close to be done yet.
Round a bend, and into a bit of wind, there’s been a few light spells this year, nothing too major, but I feel a bit here, as well as the right side of my ribs suddenly aching a bit. Not really a stitch, but must be some sort of slight muscular thing felt through exertion – that i’ve had more fixed on the left side for a couple of weeks. Work at my breathing to get it away, and minor hindrance averted, through 8 miles on a 5.58 split. I’m still under the target, and the hardest mile so far has been seen off.
Remember Aley’s words of wisdom about how there will be some tough times, but think positively. This is the first one, and I know mile 10 will be one to dig in for too.
Miles 8-9 are quite enjoyable as it feels a sort of back way, off the main roads, and a bit that reminds me of that stretch somewhere about 7/8miles in the Maidenhead 10miler. Not offroad or anything, but something a bit different to take the mind off things.
Mile 9 is seen off in 5.51. A young small girl who’d been well ahead the whole way was coming back in a big way by now. I had wondered if she was on for a real big time of say 1hr 15. But she dropped off, and despite a very worthy attempt to stay with me and 2 guys, I could tell her breathing level was a few notches above ours, and she gently dropped off us. I checked her PO10 just then, and her pb pre today was 80:00 dead, so she’s had a great run even how she dropped off.
We turn round a bend, and there’s one loonnnng straight ahead, into a bit of wind, and “the hill”. That’s a very relative term, and not a hill by the standards of any real hill, but 10miles into a half this motorway bridge feels a climb. The 10mile marker is cunningly placed midway up, and it’s always a nice benchmark of getting there nicely before an hour.
Through 10mile split on 5.57, and working the splits out now, I must have hit around 58.40 for 10miles.
Notice Alex, Sam’s other half standing at the side chatting to a marshal, clearly having dropped out. Strange, as a ginger guy from another club had dropped out not long before. Curly from another thread on RW did too apparently, which was a shame, and I hear Sam later dropped out as well, possibly on seeing her other half – not a good day for that duo unfortunately. Both have great recovery though, so probably will be monstering another one soon!
To the top of the bridge, and there’s another one coming in mile 11. A bit of a tougher mile, but i know Rob F from Datchet will be there for some advice, and we’re well and truly on the run in by now.
Mile 11 on the clock at 6.05, it’s taken 11 miles to go over 6min miling, but hey, it’s the toughest mile of the course, and it’s near the end. Keep working i think, as there’s another treat at 12miles with the Datchet crew from earlier. So much better seeing them this time round!
Mile 12 – 5.57
We’re almost there! The last mile is great, as you come round the outside of the back of the field, and I was still feeling pretty decent – I cannot stress the difference from my last half enough here!
This way round it’s a slight downhill, then digging in for a few hundred metres, 12.75miles on the clock, last slight up spell now, there’s the 13mile marker, it’s 5.53, and although I’m only a few metres behind a chap, there’s no need at all to sprint in, and i see the last 36secs over the line for what is confirmed as a chip time of
1:17:11
Yes! Over the line, almost forget to hand the chip in.
That will do ever so nicely. Ranks 3rd in my 27 half marathons, only 8secs off my Reading 2015 time (1:17:03). That was a follow up after a half marathon a month before, where I’d had a good opener, whereas today was straight off the bat. The 75.41 I hit in 2013 must have been an incredible day’s work i think!
Saw James, he’d splashed a 1:13 in, which is probably the right sort of gap between us. Then I very much felt the need to sit down for a good 5mins or so!
Quickly reflected on how I never thought I’d race a half again, and just quiet satisfaction of coming back pretty decently. Hard to say if I could have squeezed a little more out, probably wouldn’t have been wise to risk it. Instead if felt a spot on effort level, and feeling fairly decent to the finish. I don’t want to overstate it, but it almost feels like today I reclaimed my “proper runner” status and don’t have to be limited as much now.
Getting home with tight legs, very hungry, tired and unleashing some thick brown pee (ed....come on!) suggested that I had worked hard enough, so all in, I’m well pleased with that.
Will hold off any wild race entering now, but Maidenhead 10miles on Good Friday could be a good option. I haven’t done any 10miler since 2013, and don’t think I’ve done Maidenhead since about 2011! I’ve never gone sub 1hour there which says it all!! 58:40 at 10miles in a half should definitely see some sway in a stand alone 10. But we’ll see, 12 stage southern relays up on 18th March, so that’s the next definite for now.
I’m looking forward to a lot of 5ks this summer, including hopefully some south coast trips to either Gosport or Portsmouth. One of the northern 5ks is a bit more of a stretch, but I’ll keep it on the bucket list for now.
Nothing quite like the satisfaction of a good half marathon though! YES!
Quite a few Kent AC and Herne Hill runners/chancers/drinkers there at Wokey today by the looks of Facebook;)
Glad to see you gave it a good go Reg, that 10k time is not to be ignored, and hope the lurgy decides to bugger off soon.
Bus, hope you're feeling better now!
SC, good thing you didn't PB if it's rumoured short - do you think it'll be something that gets picked up on?
Got my 10mi in this evening - legs were feeling nice and rested for the time off! 10.2mi at 7:38/mi for 75.7%HR. As it was an out and back, thought I'd up the effort on the way back, pushing 80% at times. Good to see a sub-7:20/mi average for the return at top-end easy, bottom-end steady effort - just goes to show the improvement since Storm Force 10.
Going to start putting in some tempo runs during the week, to get comfortable with turning the legs over ready for my 10mi in a fortnight, and then Reading in 4 weeks.
Cracking report SG - seemed a bit on the short side though
Glad you feel better Bus. I wondered after all the maladies you've have had, if you had swallowed a gut full of pain killers. That's something I'd never repeat after a post race episode. Nasty.
🙂
Can certainly feel yesterday - plenty of tightness, so no doubt it was a good effort then!
3miler at lunch again, then will look at whether i take tomorrow off, as per Moz days, or whether i try and easy pace it through, as I need to take Sunday as a rest day due to footy watching up north.
Thanks Ric. Just two Ibuprofen beforehand. Funnily enough, we had a pre-race conversation in the car about the potentially harmful effects of NSAIDs. A guy I work with lost a large part of his digestive system from taking too many of the things. I only use them very sparingly, but they do tend to work for things like sciatica.
I think the gut thing is just a reaction to the severe retching. My heart rate graph (if it is to be believed!) is very interesting in that it leaps up at 8M and then at again at 10, in three distinct plateaux.
Feel fine and dandy today mind. Hungry, and waiting for DOMS to kick in later in the week :-)
I sometimes come a cropper when I've woken up after a few beers on Saturday night at 4/5am and taken a couple of Anadin extra..The legs feel great on the LSR..but the stomach not so much. Also had really bad guts after doing a cross country race after taking AE in the morning...a scenario that if you looked down the bog after and you hadn't taken painkillers and just raced a xc...you might be straight down the doctors
Legs (hammies really) a bit tight also this morning. National xc on Saturday, so might take it a bit easier this week
PMJ, glad you smashed your target, always pleasing when that happens. It wasn’t so long ago you were hitting sub 3 marathons though, so whilst the decline of age does take its toll, I don’t think you’re a 90 minute man yet.
Bus, that’s some mighty retching work there, and, given almost constant injuries/niggles for years, still being able to run an 81 isn’t really too shabby. Sure you’ll run under 1:20 again before age decimates your joints totally.
Reg, can’t work out what you did or didn’t do, but congratulations/commiserations (delete as appropriate).
Simon, shame you weren’t happy with your XC last week, but if you can see Ben Reynolds, it can’t have been a complete disaster. Nice 1200s too.
Awesome sessions from Matt L. But I don’t want to hear anything more about you stretching yourself to videos of attractive women.
Did anyone else race?
No. Nobody?
OK.
Ah, of course, SG might have had a little run round somewhere. But he’s been so quiet about it ;-)
Storming run there SG, and hopefully this can put a little bit of that self-belief back. Because, frankly, you’ve been doing casual 14s and 15s at 6:50 pace for a good year or more, and you were never going to run 1:20 or face other health complications. So hopefully you can get stuck back into the half marathons again now. Great blow-by-blow account of the race, I had to split reading it over 2 days. Come on then. Start doing the half marathon sessions and big tempos for a bid at 1:15!
My clubmate got 2nd at Wokingham with 69:20 and beat our club record. Took over 2 minutes off his PB. I am not remotely surprised, as I knew he'd surpassed me, but impressive nonetheless.
Right, I never put up a race report of the final Hampshire League XC last weekend, having been away last week and with writing a report on my phone being a massive pain in the arse. It was an eventful one, so I don’t want to leave it unreported.
Had considered having a quiet week beforehand, with an aspiration to finish top 10 for the first time, but that would have killed my mileage, what with a taper for Chichester the week before and a holiday with expectations of no running the week after. Anyway, it was a dead rubber – we had mathematically already won the vets team title, and I could not mathematically win the individual vets trophy due to indifferent autumn performances. So I did lots of miles in the week before, and decided to turn the XC into a long run with 5m before and 4m afterwards. By the time I stood on the start line I’d done 72 miles that week.
Unsurprisingly, I started sluggishly. Conditions were miserable, pissing rain the whole day. The bit of the course round the playing fields was very churned up and it was hard to get any pace going. For the first kilometre or so I have 3 clubmates ahead of me, including Simon’s nemesis Ben and Matt R (who ran 1:11 at Wokingham). Course is one small lap, one medium lap, 2 big laps. On the medium lap, I move past one of my clubmates and start to run in a group with various including Ben and Matt. Start to find my pace a bit, and move towards the front of the group and then we’re into the woods on the first of the big laps..
The woods are a bit better, as the surface is much more runnable, but it’s very twisty, so it’s still impossible to properly open up. Still, it suits me a bit more, and I’m able to open up a bit of a gap, and it looks like I’ll be moving through the field from here. I’m on someone’s heels, so I don’t see a massive rock, painted white. Suddenly, I’ve hit it and am falling. The course is marked out with these foot-long bamboo cane things with ribbons tied to them, and I can see as I’m falling that my trajectory is such that this cane will enter my skull through my eye socket. Frantically twisting to one side, I manage to avoid that grisly fate, and hit the deck and roll a couple of times. In the time to takes to dazedly stand up and point myself in the right direction, I’ve lost 7-8 places, including to Ben and Matt. Starting running again, I am certain that I am bleeding on the hands and possibly the knees, but what’s the point in checking?Pissed off, I am now on a rampage through the woods. Up behind two Southampton now, but I’m going straight past, I’m on a mission. Down a hill and back into the playing fields – but as I land at the bottom of the hill I can feel a jarring in the top of my foot. Too eager! I slow right down to test whether I can continue, and according to spectators I am visibly limping at this point. But it seems OK after a few steps and try to speed back up again. By the time I’ve done the loops of the muddy playing fields, I’ve made up most of the places I’ve lost, and am past Matt and on ben’s shoulder. Decide to move past when we’re back into the woods, aware that this is where I am strongest and there are fewer opportunities to overtake.Putting the fall to the back of my mind, try to open up again, and it looks like I might get first V40 again. But, with about 800m of running to go, someone comes storming past. It’s that celebrity former fatso Steve Way! Shit, he’s a vet! He moves 10m ahead, and it looks like he’s going to get away. Hang on into the playing fields, and as the finish looms into sight I’m coming back to him. Grit my teeth, and get back on his shoulder at the final corner. But he responds! Who knew he could sprint? This little burst is just enough to hold me off, and I cross the line 19th and 2nd V40. Bugger! Ben is only a second behind, had I not made an effort to catch Steve, he’d have got me.
So that’s OK really with the fall and in the context of a big week.
From there, it was up to Gatwick that evening and then flew to the Arctic Circle in Finland for a week, to a hotel in the complete middle of nowhere. I was expecting not to be able to run, due to a combination of short days, very deep snow and, potentially, and most worryingly, wolves. However, in the end, I did manage to get a couple of short ones in. There was a 2km loop in the woods next to the hotel clearly marked out with ribbons. It was used for showshoeing, so although the snow was still about a foot deep, it was quite compacted, and with my Yaktrax on, I was able to run on it. It wasn’t easy running per se, but approximately equivalent to the average XC. In fact, with the snow falling and the sun out, it was absolutely stunning to run in. And I didn’t get killed by a wolf, so that’s OK.
Can't knock that sort of Reg style clumsiness and still doing so well though.
I bet you cannot have failed to rue not being at Wokingham.
While the overall standard I think was faster than ever, the very front end seemed a little under? Overall 1hr 5, and your mate 1hr 9.
You'd have been podium mixer!
Great running by everyone else at Wokingham also. Sorry to hijack a different thread!
What a small world, and that's the beauty of online postings, 1 sec difference gun time, and you're already on the forum, albeit elsewhere! I did consider a completely pointless sprint in to gain a place and a second, but at the end of a well raced half it isn't always necessary...or clever!
It's a great race, my 6th time there, I think reports for 5 of them are buried in this thread somewhere. Cash in early doors, and hold on late!
SG, I think 19th is below current 'par', as without having mullered myself in training during the week, and also without falling over, I'd have been higher. Steve Way isn't in his old shape, although he's coming back (he was a long way behind me in some of the earlier races).
Hampshire League is a good standard, and there is the odd international or two at the front, but it's not on a par with Surrey or Birmingham Leagues in terms of depth.
I guess I should expand on my race report....
So disclaimers were, hardly any running, only 3 miles that week and 20 the two weeks before and 3 weeks of no running at all thanks to the sprained ankle. On top we have a 4-5 week (I've lost count) cold/flu/chest infection type thing that has my heart rate about 10 beats above normal. So I think a sensible thing would be not to race at all and given the circumstances a 1:30 jog would have been the compromise. On top of this I haven't really done any cycling other than the commute to work.
Mile 1 in 5:45 and you can see where this is heading! I look at my watch into mile 2 and we've slipped to 6:00 so I put my foot down a bit, I'm with Bus for a while and I notice he works harder on the uphill and I drift away on the downhills. I check my HR and it's 185, I'd normally average 178 for a half and that's with cardiac drift so at this point I'd expect to see around 170 on the watch. 185 is last 2-3 miles territory. I question whether I can actually hold something higher but as I get to about 4-5 miles I start to ease back a bit as I'd like to get back to Wokingham.
I'm still around familiar faces as we approach 7 miles, including SG and as Alistair (Wargrave) comes my mind references previous SG posts and I wait for them to start flirting. I'm not disappointed. A guy with a grey t-shirt that looks like he shouldn't be running this fast comes past and this adds to all the negative thoughts. As I drop to the back of the group I wonder about burying myself as I am still on PB pace but I know that I am going to cause some long term soreness and probably injury for what might be a marginal PB but most likely will be a fade to 1:20. Once I ease off I slow unconsciously too.
Mile 7 is 6:15 then I lose roughly 10 seconds a mile until mile 11, in this time, around 9 miles Bus has come past and I remark that's he's going well but I obviously can't tell his pace and his reaction indicates he's slowed a bit too, just not as much as me! I feel like I can react and stay with him but I use my discretion and convince myself it's not me being gutless. I'll not worry about the 4-0.
Once I'm over the motorway bridges I put on a bit more pace, I am getting a bit fed up with people coming past, ironically everyone that comes past seems to be breathing like an excitable puppy and I feel like I am just going for a walk, my legs feel different though. Miles 11 (7:05) & 12 (6:56) were the slowest and I manage to put a 6:15 in for mile 13. I was a bit surprised that I could up the pace that much and I enter the home straight fairly strongly.
As I stop I chat to SG & Bus for a bit whilst trying not to cough to death. I feel pretty sore today so tomorrow won't be pretty either. Not sure I've learnt anything useful from this exercise, other than maybe not to race ill again. I finished with 1:22 but it's a meaningless time, however the 10k split gives me a bit of confidence that I could have run sub 36 in terrible shape with illness, so a few weeks of training should see some improvements.
That's handy as I have Reading in 4 weeks and I'll be looking for a PB, which means starting at 5:59 pace and not 5:45!
At least your "running ill" half shouldn't cause you the drama I had for however long after!
Can only be better for Reading. 12 stage relays that day luckily, so i'm not tempted back in for another!