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Overdone it?
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Cheers for picking that up DT - what were you overall ? In fact what was I ? ☺
My 13.1 marathon effort was inside a 20 mile wrapper and came out at 1.23.20 on my watch. Chip may be slower as I stopped to tie a shoelace. Even though it was marathon effort the undulating course and wind made it feel like I was reaching a bit at times. Average heart rate came out bob on 150bpm without me monitoring it particlarly closely.
Pete - brilliant - knew you would PB in that one - well done.
Good running everyone else.
1:23:34 for me - much hillier than it looks on profile.
well done.....looks like sub 3 is a given......
& well done Skinny! I reckon Muddy thinks you should have tried a bit harder.
Haha nice one skinny
Although muds was just asking, that reminds me of doing a 1.17/1.18 once and some local legend asked if it was hilly!!
muds, 12th while reigning it in is good. Where would top effort have got you?
Lit - Haha you know I wasn't. I work there though
Poor chap denied of a medal somewhere between Muddy and I.
The local county Athletics Associations are based on pre-1974 boundaries, before the creation of the West Midlands CC, So warwickshire includes coventry and south east birmingham, and worcestershire includes South West Birmingham.
You'll probably find a similar arrangement in Humberside...hmmm...do I see a pattern.
Droitwich Half Marathon (Inc Worcs half champs)
This is my only half marathon pre London. I entered largely because it’s on my doorstep, has a pleasant 11am start and was also the Worcestershire champs where I have picked up medals in the past.
I was aware that the course itself was challenging and I wasn’t even sure what sort of shape I was in and half expected to find myself struggling in the latter stages and crawling home in about 1.30.
I was aware pre-race of 2 other clubmates running, both of whom were comfortably faster than me. My hope was that there were no others as only 3 count in the champs.
Waking up Sunday morning and hearing the rain batter the window and seeing the grass on my lawn being blown about, I really wasn’t feeling it.
Thankfully by the time I had arrived at the venue the rain at least had eased off. I entered the main hall and much to my despair I was greeted by 4 clubmates, none of whom I would be able to beat. Then Muddy arrived complaining how cold it was.
After some messing about, Muddy and I set about a warm. This felt awful which is usually a good sign. I then returned to carry out final preparations. I made a slight error here by spraying deep heat on my hamstrings and rubbing it in and followed it up by rubbing my eyes and then going for a poo and causing a slight reaction down below.
Messing about done we all congregated in the start area and eventually lined up. At this stage I was freezing cold (I decided to save my pre race fashionwear for another day). There were lots of familiar faces on the start line so it was nice to chat with a few people I’d not seen in a few months. I was asked a few times what I was aiming for and I put out 1.27 as a reasonable outcome.
The race got going, uphill and into the wind (not for the last time) and everyone charged off as usual. I tried my best to control my pace and mile 1 came in at 6.29. It felt about right though and not like I was forcing it. Just ahead was one of my clubmates so I pulled him back. This was to prove a really good move as the field thinned out dramatically we would work together really well for the first half of the race.
I cannot really give a mile by mile account of the route as it felt like we were just running in loops and at various points in the early stages there were mile markers for later miles.
Mile 2 came in at 6.35 and at the end of this mile we were joined by another runner who stayed to work with us. This made it so much easier and we began pulling each other up the many climbs into the wind and gobbling up individual runners.
Mile 3 involved quite a bit of climbing (6.37). I recall part way through that mile my other club mate appeared in the distance some 200/300m ahead of us and I commented to the guys we were with that he was coming back to us after a fast start.
As the miles ticked by, nothing really interesting happened. We just kept pulling each other along (6.32, 6.28, 6.36). At around 6 miles the other chap with us made a bit of a push. I decided to go with him but my other clubmate didn’t come, much to my surprise.
I spoke with the chap I was running with about a plan and the desire not to get left on my own at least until mile 10. I also explained why I wanted to pull my other clubmate in, who was coming ever closer to us. We then seemed to up the pace a little despite there being a few hills, putting in a 6.31 and a 6.24. It was during this latter mile on the top of a climb that we took my clubmate and put on a push to make sure we dropped him, which we did quite quickly after he initially tried to come with us.
At this point I was aware that I was in the clubs scoring 3 and fairly high up the field meaning we would probably pick up team gold. My aim now, beyond any other objective was to hold this position. For one moment I even considered turning off my watch.
In our sights was 1 other runner so we agreed we would pull him in next as again he was exposed on his own. Mile 9 involved a bit of a climb and for some reason this knocked me disproportionately (6.37). As we were in touching distance of the other chap in front, my racing friend pushed on as we came into mile 10. This led to a reasonably quick mile as we then cruised past this other runner (6.28) but he then maintained that pace and I just couldn’t go with him.
I now found myself completely exposed for the first time and the impact on my mood/spirit was quite substantial. I suddenly felt shattered and the demons started shouting at me. It wasn’t helped in mile 11 with another big climb (6.48). In mile 12 we started running back into a loop with slower runners coming the other way. They were all passing on encouragement but I simply couldn’t speak. They were running slightly downhill and I was going upwards. My concern was that one or both my other clubmates would put in a surge and come flying past me so I was constantly looking behind. In the distance behind by about 100m now was the last person we passed and no sign of the others. I was furiously doing the maths to try and work out what they would probably have to put in as we entered mile 13 if they were to catch me, on the basis they were not in sight. Mile 12 came in at 6.49 and at 11.92 on my gps. I wondered if the course might give me some time back by measuring short, something I felt I was due after Peterborough!
Mile 13 seemed to take an eternity, and whilst I didn’t really care about him, I was panicking in case the other lad came back for me. Unfortunately the mile marker at 13 corrected the earlier anomaly and came in smack on 13 (6.45).
The race finished on the athletics track so I did consider that there was no excuse not to be bang on 13.1 as they had the full area to utilise. To get to the athletics track you had to take a sharp left through a gate and run about 20 metres across muddy grass.
As I dropped down the hill I could see the finish area, where hardly anyone was. I was conscious that I would have been visible to my 2 other clubmates who would never have expected to see me coming back 3rd. At this point there was no one close enough to pass me and my watch had already tipped over to 1.26 so I had no particular reason to push the last 100m, coming in at 6.39 pace for the 0.13 miles and 1.26.33 official time. My other 2 clubmates then came in 1 and 2 minutes behind me. I finished 12th overall which was higher than I had expected to finish.
I met back up with the chap I had run with for the first 10 miles we thanked each other for our respective assistance. I then waited around for absolutely ages for the awards to eventually be told that they wouldn’t be able to do the team ones.
In a race of this nature I think the best gauge of performance is how everyone else got on with it and who you beat or got closer too. The guy I spent most of the race running with, looking at his runbritain, ran London in 2.57 last year and beat me by over 2 minutes in a 6 mile xc fixture in November so I was in reasonably good company. Equally my 2 clubmates who came in behind me regularly (always) post better times than me. The course elevation itself was not dissimilar to Kenilworth or Coventry, both of which I performed much better at, however it was the spread of the climbing here (plus the wind). In the above 2 races there was a defined period of climbing, circa 7 miles, and then a lot of sweeping downhill. Yesterday’s course was a constant cycle of climb, recover, climb and I don’t recall any hefty downhills that were comparable to the uphills.
My last half marathon before London last year was 1.26.41 at the world half champs in Cardiff which was a largely flat course, albeit spoilt by torrential rain at about 9 miles. Therefore it leaves me thinking I still have a shout at pb’ing at London. The only 2 downers were clothing based. Despite smothering my inner thighs in anti-chaf cream, in my super short racing shorts I have still chaffed a bit and so wonder whether I run London in my normal 4 inch training shorts. The other is that towards the end of the race I started to develop a blister on the edge of my right foot on the ball of the big toe and wonder how bad that would have got with another 13 miles.
Nice one DT.
A proper length race report too
Must be good news that you did a faster time on a harder course though DT - not sure how windy it was but that will certainly not have helped your time either.
Once I've done my report we can have a course profile competition.
DT - I was chatting with your clubmates as you came down the hill - they were going "Where's Kev, where's Kev ? Here he is, no that's Darryl!" to much amazement.
Muddy, I think they only really gauge these things from what happens in xc which I am comparably poor at. The fact is my training is optimized for running 10- 13.1 miles on the road, though I still didn't expect to beat them.
My garmin clocked about 480 foot of elevation....how can that be so different? As I said in my report it was more the persistency of climbs that wore me down. Just as I got into a rhythm another one would pop up.
So taking a normal course (perhaps 250 foot of climbing) and reasonable race day conditions, can I consider that I am still in circa low 1.25 shape?
I had a fairly miserable run at yesterday. With McF being incapacitated I got a last minute transfer for Warwick HM rather than the planned Milton Keynes - they did entries on the day for a very reasonable £35.
I ran approximately 5.5 miles from home to the start in pouring rain, then spent about 45 minute sorting out the transfer and other general faffing around getting freezing cold.
As we started I wasn't really in the mood, so decided to keep my warm-up top on for a bit. In the event I kept it on for almost the whole race, only taking it off as we approached the finish line so I wouldn't get into trouble from over-zealous official.
Plan was to run it at pmp of 6:40, but this didn't happen. fist mile was slow, second and third were ok then all the rest except for mile 10 which was substantially downhill, were slow.
Finished feeling rather deflated, so picked up my bag and went straight to a cafe where we'd arranged to meet and sat by myself drinking some quite good coffee for half an hour or more before McF and the rest of my club-mates started to trickle in being all jolly, chatting about pbs and whatnot.
Time was 1:31:10 with an average pace of 6:57 average hr was 85%max and it was fairly flat throughout the race, suggesting that that it was a reasonable marathon pace effort, but it felt like I was working far too hard and my legs felt trashed afterwards. Anyway, bad day at the office as they say - fingers crossed coventy HM in two weeks will be more to my liking.
Haweswater Half Marathon 5th March 2017
Not an ideal pre London warm up half as not flat so neither similar to race conditions nor a good indicator of my flat HM time pre race. However I was a bit worried about my training because I felt heavy legged and unbouncy, I’d had a couple of weeks of lower miles due to niggles and also I’d taken the decision to just continue plodding slow miles so there was no faster training in my legs.
This race 7 weeks out gave me the opportunity to discover training was going okay or alternatively enough time to switch to something more interval based for last 4 or 5 weeks prior to taper.
The race follows a scenic route along the length of Haweswater to the head of the valley and back again – so any uphill on the way out is a downhill on the way back and vice versa.
I went along with Skinny’s mate (SM) who is not to be confused with Friend of Skinny (FoS). SM has been running about 6-9 months and was hoping to beat his PB of 1:36 that he set after about 4 months running.
I was hoping for 1:24ish which I reckoned would confirm I was okay for London. However at parkrun I discovered that my local rival (Mr Previously Slower Now Faster (Mr PSNF)) was running it and he is very steady so knew he would be a good yardstick to gauge against. In Cumbrian Run in October he ran 1:22:46 to my 1:24:30 so I hoped I would have closed some of that gap but he had told me his training for London was going really well.
Just to get this out of the way this is the profile that me and SM planned our race based on with 685 feet of climbing.
This was reality from SM Garmin after race. My estimate is around 1,000 feet of climbing – the difference being that the above seems to have smoothed out and ignored all the various dips and rises and only counted the general up or down. In actual fact you were never running on the flat.
I did wonder what had happened when I saw it on Connect, Lou. What surprises me is that your elevation gain was reported on it as 500 foot which was more than Droitwich. Therefore I simply assumed it was very hilly and windy and you ran it to mara effort as opposed pace.
I sort of wish I was doing Coventry now, however I really need a new hoody as a general wardrobe requirement so I'm definitely needing to do Ashby.
I wonder whether I should use the innov8s at Ashby to see if they present a reasonable compromise.
Due to a shortage of portaloos my warm up was truncated to about 1.5 miles including strides, we lined up and off we went. Pretty quickly I found myself settling in behind Mr PSNF and went through the first mile in 6:20 which was bang on target. I'll put all the rest of the splits at the end because they were all over the place and I didn't really worry too much about time during the race. I was either flogging myself up a hill or flogging myself down a hill.
It was obvious in the first 3 miles that the route back would not be all downhill and that we would have to deal with some pretty nasty rises in the ground on tired legs but that was for later.
Just after 3 miles we started going downhill and I found myself alongside Mr PSNF and then leaving him behind.
At 5 miles we came to the steepest rise on the whole course and I was really flogging myself to get up to the top and Mr PSNF moved slowly past and even over the top he moved away and two other people went past me and followed him. I felt like my race was run but there was about a 1.2 mile downhill to the turn and I gradually refound my rhythm and started closing the gap again.
Of course then we went round the turn and back up the 1.2 mile hill. Off he went and by the time I reached the top he was well ahead and I found myself hoping that I could at least finish less than the 1:44 behind him that I had suffered at the Cumbrian Run.