I started training in February with the plan to get fit for the summer races. It had been a while since I’d run and I wasn’t in very good shape, I could run but my times were no where near what they were in October. I had work to do.
As training progressed I began to get stronger and a little faster, that prompted me to enter The Paddock Wood half marathon. Probably a little premature as I still had some niggling injuries, moreover I’d not done any of the long runs I’d done last year to get a personal best.
With about 8 weeks to go I upped the miles, I slowly started at 8 miles and went from there. However after a few weeks I noticed a pain in my right shin. Now being a runner I’m used to aches and pains so I done the usual and just iced and stretched. Then a few weeks later I noticed it in my left shin too. After talking to my coach he suspected shin splints. I’ve not had anything like that before so didn’t know where to start. I was given some stretches and invested in some new trainers, my old Brooks had done 700 miles so thought that might be due.
I have to admit it got worse before it got better and I did consider pulling out but a week off running, some strengthening exercises and lots of stretching it did eventually get better, just in time. In fact the 10 mile run I done the Sunday before I could still feel some pain. But a few light runs during the week felt much better and actually, on race day, they were fine.
So, race day. The weather was perfect, legs were OK and I felt good. I picked Neill up on time and we made our way to the event. Both had a warm up and got ready for the race. Now this is where I made a mistake, Neill moved to the front of the starters as he is much faster at around 1:25 pace. I saw the sub 2 hours marker and carried on towards the front until I met a guy who said he was 1:40. Perfect. Or so I thought. The gun went and everyone ambled to the start line, then carried on ambling…..come on? But they didn’t. For the first half mile I was a fast walking pace. It then broke out in a jog but I was overtaking a lot of runners and spent the whole of this first mile trying to get in front of people who were probably not sub 1:40. The first mile marker came and I saw my split was 8:26. My first thought was game over, I have a lot of work to do to get anywhere near 1:40 let alone below that.
The next few miles I was trying to play catch up and this was mistake number two. Rather than pace myself sensibly and recover a few seconds each mile I tried to recover the time I’d lost in that first mile straight away. By mile five I was starting to flag and was tiring already. Plan C? I then made the decision to slow down, relax and just see how I go. I was still overtaking lots of people, in fact I only remember a few people passing me the whole race.
It was probably the hottest day of the year so far and something Paddock Wood organisers do great is supply plenty of water stations and a couple of sponge stops. These are great for a freshen up and a cool down and I made the most of both of them on route.
I approached mile 11 and decided it was time to kick, my next two miles were quicker, something I have done in training and I did feel quite strong. I recovered some time but not enough to be close to my PB and just short of sub 1:40.
The final mile was my fastest but I doubt could have kept that up for much longer. I crossed the line in 1:40:26 and although that was my second fastest half marathon my first thought was disappointment – which is not uncommon for me to think that straight after a race.
I met up with Neill who ran a fantastic 1:26 for a personal best and Chris with a 77 minute 27th place.
But for myself, a year older and two minutes slower.
Next year.