After yesterday's 5k I finally ran my first half today. It may have been a mistake to do two races in a weekend as my legs were a little sore. There had been a forecast of rain, but the day turned out pretty good. Not too warm and just right for running.
I cycled over to Standalone Farm where the start and finish was. There were lots of serious looking runners there. A bit different to the fun run atmosphere yesterday. Some people were loaded up with drink bottles and gels that seemed a little over the top for the distance. I knew there were two drink stations on the course and I assumed that would be enough, but I guess some people must have their own special drinks. I think there were around 280 starters. It's supposed to be a self-guided race with limited signage, but there were marshals at some points. You just had to know which turnings to take, but I had already scouted the route and I had people to follow anyway. The roads were not closed and there were marshals at the crossings. In most cases drivers let us cross.
Here's the start. I went near the back as I didn't want to hold anyone up. We had to walk a little to start with and there are some narrow bridges that caused the runners to bunch up, but then they got well spread out.
I took it very steadily as I knew it was going to be a long slog. I found I was not huffing and puffing much generally. I just kept my legs moving, even on the hills. There are a few climbs, but they are not too steep and I was pleased that I could keep jogging when others walked.
The route is mostly on the Letchworth Greenway that runs right around the town. It's a compacted sand and gravel surface that's a little more forgiving than roads. Some was on grass with a few stretches of pavements (or sidewalks if you prefer). I just settled into a comfortable pace and was able to maintain that most of the way. I found I passed a few people, but it wasn't really about where I was placed.
The drink stations also had some gummi bears that may have helped me a little. There were a few people along the way cheering us on, but no big crowds before the finish. I saw some spectators a couple of times, so they must have driven ahead. My wife and son were waiting about 2km from the end to give me some encouragement. At that point I was feeling pretty good. It does seem to take me a while to really get going. Just after I saw them I speeded up as I knew the finish was close. I may have done that a little early as I had to walk a few steps as I got on the track around the field where the finish was. I managed to get going again in time to finish at a nice run with lots of people cheering. We had our names on our numbers, so it was fun to hear people shouting 'Come on Steve!'.
As I crossed the finish the clock said around 2:10, but the provisional official times shows me doing 2:11:40 in 188th place. I'm very happy with that as I didn't expect to do better than 2:15. My app (Endomondo) shows slightly better, but I can't say how accurate it is. The max speed is definitely not right. It does show my best times are all in the latter stages, but that's probably down to my 'sprint'.
My wife and son were at the finish to welcome me. There was a wonderful selection of cakes for competitors. You can see me here enjoying some scrumptious rocky road.
You can't see my medal above, so here it is with the one from yesterday.
So what's next? Having done a half now I can contemplate doing another, but there are some 5k and 10k events locally that I'd like to do too. What about a marathon? Well, that's a whole different thing. I can imagine I'd really have to step up the training for that. Maybe next year.
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