A sore throat, very strong wind, rain and an injury couldn’t stop me getting a PB on what is by far my favourite half marathon course.
Sunday 29th March I completed the Paddock Wood Half Marathon for the second time. The first time I ran this course, in 2013, it was a lovely sunny day with over 2,000 people running. I ran a personal best time of 1:51, which was a great improvement on my previous half marathon. Both running buddies, Geoff and Nick achieved PB’s that day too. This year, my training was much improved, I have had professional training with a running club, Runfit, and been running alongside some elite runners. Previously, my training had just been based on miles, however, this time there has been an emphasis on speed work and interval training. Which has obviously helped greatly. On the downside, the number of miles I have been running recently has affected my training and I’ve sustained an injury, to the point I struggled to walk to work (about a mile from the train station). I made sure the injury was checked out with a physio and he confirmed the pain was down to tight glutes and in-flexible hip flexors. I was given a number of stretches but it didn’t make much difference.
As usual, I woke up on the Saturday before, tired and with a sore throat, which always seems to happen the day before a race. But I loaded myself up with paracetamol and Berroca and carried on with the day. the injury was still quite painful, but eased enough to be able to walk normally.
Sunday I was woken by my alarm……an hour earlier than I was used to, thanks to British Summer Time! But I felt better and the leg was much less painful. The weather however did not improve and by the time I’d left my house the rain had started and the wind was very strong.
I arrived at the venue and straight away saw a few familiar faces. I warmed up, as best I could with my injury and took my position at the start line. As with larger events, there are areas to start at based on your estimated finish time, I took everything in to consideration and thought 1:20 to 1:40 was a bit optimistic so I should go for 1:40 to 2:00, knowing (hoping), I’d be at the quicker end of the scale – little did I know.
The race started and all 2,100 shivering runners were off. The first mile was my slowest, but with so many runners bunched up this was to be expected. In that first mile, while everyone was still close together, I was overtaken, rather robustly by an impatient runner and was waved, what seemed like, a rather sarcastic ‘sorry!’. The club runner appeared to carry on barging people out of the way until he was out of sight. The best part of this story was that I passed him at mile 5 or 6, struggling and breathing very heavily and never saw him again after that…..1-0.
It was then that I realised the pain of my injury had eased and I was running much better.
During the race, Claire, someone who I know from the running club flew passed me in her effortless running style. I had a thought that if I could keep up with her for a few miles then that might help my time, even if I blow out towards the end, I know I would have been up on my target pace. This proved to be easier said than done, Claire is an amazing runner and I struggled to stay close, but for the next 5-6 miles I could see her in the distance so knew I was doing something right. This proved to be the case as at every mile split I glanced at my watch and they were all within 10 seconds of each other, something I’ve never been able to manage before. Around mile 11 I was amazed I could no longer see Claire (I think I passed her at the drink station) so I put my head down and tried to pick up the pace.
Now, in my last half marathon, this is where I went wrong. At about mile 11 I hit the wall and was only able to plod along at 9 minute miles. But it seems with the extra training and the long runs I have been doing in preparation has worked and I was feeling much stronger. I pushed on and thought to myself, actually, I could keep this pace until the end. I didn’t, I just kept going faster and faster, the last mile was less than 7 minutes and the last 400m I peaked at 5:53 pace. What a confidence boost for future races. I managed a sprint finish and crossed the line in a time of 1 hour, 38 minutes and 28 seconds. I last looked at my watch at mile 11 and thought I should be on course for a good time, I had set myself a goal of under 1:45 but I never expected such a great time. And what a great feeling! My leg was really hurting and tight and I was cold and wet but I was so happy with my time I didn’t care.
I’m posting this a few days after the race and the disappointment of Tonbridge Half has completely gone and replaced with huge pride for this latest run. I was not the only one who got a good time, Nick who two years ago ran about 2:20 knocked nearly 30 minutes off this time and finished an amazing 1:51, well done Nick. Not only did I get a great time, I also got great support too, thanks to Geoff for making the journey, in terrible weather to give me a huge boost at the last mile. Also to Mark, Tom and Barry for training tips and advice and to Claire for encouragement and for helping me pace, and well done as I think she got a PB too. Lastly of course to the family, who shouted out, good luck daddy, we love you, just as I was walking out the door – wow, that sounded like an acceptance speech, sorry.
My PB