Exeter Half Marathon

I mentioned in my last post that I had suffered an injury, but the stretching and a couple of days off did the trick.  I also did all my runs at a very easy pace for two weeks, as I was gearing up for a race this morning which is my first "A-Race" of the year, and one I was hoping to do well in.

After the recent very bad weather, this morning was pretty much perfect running conditions.  The sun was out and there was no wind, so all was looking good for the race.  There was some frost on the ground in a couple of places on the lap, but by lap 2 of the 3 lap race that was pretty much gone.  So no real concerns there either.

I had planned to set off at 7:30 pace and I kept that in mind.  During the first 1/3 of the race I was purposefully holding myself back a bit but I went through in 33mins so I was more or less on target.  The second third was a bit tougher, but I was still on target for my sub-1:40, so all was looking good and at this point I was just trying to stay relaxed and concentrate.  It is fairly easy to lose concentration at this event as you find yourself in the middle of a line of runners and I find I end up running at their pace, even if it's a touch slow.  Anyway, I went through the second third of the race and I was feeling good.

The mile markers were slightly out which was worrying me a bit all the way around as it was quite tight in terms of my goal time and my watch has measured slightly over.  I did slow a bit in the last third which is frustrating, but I'm delighted to say I got around in 1:38:54 (this is my watch time so not official yet)!!  I'm really, really pleased as this is over 3-mins off of my previous PB!

The splits are 7:23, 7:26, 7:26, 7:24, 7:25, 7:24, 7:28, 7:28, 7:33, 7:34, 7:36, 7:41, 7:49 with the last bit of 1:18 (7:09 pace), so you can see I did slow which is annoying and shows I went off too quickly I suppose?  Interestingly though, according to my Garmin this works out at exactly 7:30min/mile, which was my initial target so I suppose it all came out in the wash in the end.  If you're interested, the Garmin trace is here, and you can see it's as flat as you can get.

This wasn't a Championship race so there weren't that many Trotters there (just 5 in total).  However, one "Trottette" did a massive PB by knocking 5 minutes off her time and went under 1:30, so she is delighted.  Well done her!

Not the best picture but this is me just before crossing the finish line.

The Half that wasn't a Half....

Well, I've been going on about a half I have had planned this weekend in the last few posts.  I was well prepared for it in terms of hydration, rest and food and I felt good, although I was feeling a bit peckish on the start line.  Unfortunately, 5 minutes before the start I was told that due to flooding the course was going to be shortened to only 12 miles!!  This was confirmed on the start line by the person on the tannoy.  I shouldn't have let it, but this affected me right at the start and I went off too quickly.  In hindsight, this was a stupid reaction but at that point I was thinking "Sod it!  It's not going to count as a half PB, so let's see what I can do".  However, from about mile 8 the road markings (and my Garmin) suggested that if anything it was going to be over distance....and it was!  It ended up being 13.22 miles.

Anyway, enough of the excuses.  The first 8-9 miles went well (in terms of how I was feeling), I needed a pit stop in mile 11 and ended up doing the 13.22 miles in 1:47:49...this is averaging 08:09 min/mile and any way I look at it, that's a PB (if not "officially"), so I've got to be happy with that.  For some reason though, I'm not happy....I think that realistically I'm still shy of the sub 8min/mile half pace which is frustrating me!  I even said on here that I expect my time would be more like 1:48, but the confusion at the start put me in a bad mood!

Also, the last 2 miles were slower (by some margin) than the first 2, which I know is not a good thing, although I did pick it up a bit on the finishing straight.

It was a flat course, and the rain did stop at the start of the event.  It was funny, because at mile 4ish people were taking tops off as it was hot, but the temperature dipped and mile 9ish onwards it was very cold.

Because I went off too quickly, I haven't really learnt anything in relation to pacing a half marathon event, or what my training paces should be for the marathon that is in 12 weeks time.

Oh well....I'll take what I can from it.  Onwards and upwards!  I have another Half Marathon at the start of March, so I'll see how that one goes.

Sat AM before the big event

The Exeter Half is 3 laps around a canal.  I was thinking this setup would be of help to me as I'd have a good indication of what the course was (including things like wind conditions) each time around.  Plus I was thinking that after each 1/3 I'd have a good idea of if I was on target (this is less important as I'll have my Garmin anyway).  However, I've read that some people suffer with boredom on these courses and maybe not do as well as they'd hoped.

I guess it's about trying to keep focused on your pace (if looking for a PB, which I am).

In other news, I slipped off the bottom stair in my house last night, and tweaked my shoulder.  I wasn't drunk, honest!  I did some stretching and massage, and it seems 100% fine this morning but I was concerned for a few minutes.  It goes to show that I (being a finely tuned performance machine....), am pretty finally balanced.

Off topic, but I'm hovering over the "Submit" button to buy a couple of tickets for the Premier League Darts which is in Exeter on 28th Feb.  I used to love watching darts as a kid, and caught the opening games on TV this week.... It does get a bit raucaus at these events, and the fact it's sponsored by a crisp company and a money lending company doesn't bode well, but I'm thinking about it!

Another guilty secret of mine is that I love poker.  Not playing, but watching it on TV!  I record all the poker shows on TV.  For me I love the personalities, the fact that over time it is basically a maths game...and obviously winning $10m at the World Series of Poker would be pretty good!  I love the lingo as well....
"He's flopped the nuts" = he's got the best possible hand on the flop.
"Pocket rockets", or "American Airlines" = pocket Aces,
"Cowboys" = pocket Kings,
"The Ladies" = pocket queens,
"The snowmen" = pocket eights,
"Anna Kournikova" = Ace King (I.E., it looks nice, but doesn't play very well), etc etc.

In the same way that a lot of people follow football very closely, my game is poker.  I am going to say it's a sport because it does get televised on the sports channels   My wife thinks I'm absolutely nuts, and looks at me like I'm going mad but still.

Speaking of my wife thinking I'm going mad, after reading Shade's Noddy's guide to marathon preparation I bought some teacakes, microwaved them and had them without any spread yesterday.  I think she nearly dialed 999 for me, but I just blamed Shades!

The big build up - Exeter Half Marathon this weekend

I now have my place in the Exeter Half Marathon after I transferred a number from a fellow Trotter who can no longer do the race.

Since my PB of 1:50:16 back in October I've shed a few pounds and also I feel I'm generally fitter/quicker so I'm hoping for a PB this weekend.  Getting my excuses in early, but the weather forecast doesn't look good currently, as there is the chance of snow and windy conditions according to the met office forecast.  Obviously if I get any PB I'll pleased, but the real test will be if I can sneak under the 1:45 time, which means averaging 8 min/miles for the race.  I expect I'll come in more around the 1:48 time, but we'll see how it goes on the day.

Unlike the race in October (Dartmoor Vale Half Marathon, which is hilly), this is billed as a pancake flat course so if it all comes together on the day I could do well.  It's funny though, because even with good preparation and improvements I think I've made recently, certain things are still out of my control. I.E., weather, how to handle a congested course and a case of runner's trots can all disrupt the best laid plans but this is the same for everyone so I'll just do my best, as always.

Shades from the Runner's World thread as said that she will look at my finish time and help with me my training paces for the marathon in May.  That will be good as it will then help me to properly focus on the correct LSR pace.  I have a strong suspicion that I'm still running them too quickly so if I see a great coach spell my paces out to me I think I will more likely try and stick to them.

Anyway, I've done my last run before the event which was a slow 5-miler with a couple of shorter faster sections, and it felt good!