Day 36 - Sunday 18th July: MK Half Marathon

Run: 13.1 miles
Time: 1 hour 56 minutes 9 seconds



Up early this morning, double portion of oatsosimple & banana, and off to Milton Keynes to run the 2010 NSPCC Half Marathon. Given that it's just a training run, I wasn't aiming to beat my 1h50m PB today. Anything under 2 hours would be good.

I got there just before 9am, and bumped into Michelle, from the Realbuzz forum, straight away. We chatted in the cool morning for a while, waiting for Sooks to arrive (another Buzzer). We couldn't tell if it was going to warm up, it looked pretty grey... but by about quarter to 10 the sun was out, and we head to the start line to get ready. With only about 1200 runners, there's not a huge queue to get over the start line, and at 10am on the dot we're off.

The route takes a combination of cycle paths, footpaths and towpaths, so is almost completely off the roads. I'm wearing my shades as I like to keep flies & dust out of my eyes as much as the sun, which is still struggling to make a big impression on the day. At least that means it's fairly cool, pretty good running weather.

Mile 3 comes up pretty quickly, and I go to pick up some water which I was planning to keep until mile 4 to take a drink with my first gel. However I hadn't realised that the water is in plastic cups, not bottles, so isn't possible to carry for a mile! Oh well, I gulp down my gel a bit earlier than planned. And struggle to drink from the cup on the run, so have to stop to a slow walk to be able to not get it all over my face and up my nose...

I follow a number of other runners who seem to be sticking to a 8m50s - 9m per mile pace, which is spot on to get me round in about 1h55m - 1h58m. Sometimes I overtake, sometimes they over take me. I find running like this takes my mind off it, and helps keep me going a bit faster than I'd normally be used to when I'm out in the countryside on my own.

Between miles 6 & 7 I'm confident that I'm on course for sub 2-hours, and depending on how much faster I can run the second half, I might even make 1h55m... however I wasn't prepared for the final section which had some rather tough "hills". The route towards the end (miles 8-10½) follows the canal towpath, and every time there's a bridge over the water, the towpath goes up and down to meet the bridge. These short sharp inclines are strength sapping.

About mile 8½ I take my second gel, and have just about sussed out how to drink from a plastic cup without spilling it all over myself. When it kicks in at ten miles I up the pace, and leave behind the girl I'd been using as my pacemaker. Although I know I'm going to finish comfortably under 2 hours, I still want to get back in as good a time as I feel I can push out of myself today.

Then there's the hill at the end too, where they've moved the Start line round the corner to be on the school playing field. I guess I'd expected the Finish line to be where the Start line was. I'm sprinting up the hill to where it was, and it's not there. Maybe it's just out of sight round the corner? No! There's a final loop to do up to the corner of the playing field, and then up a grass straight for a proper sprint finish. I'm so pleased that I've made it, I almost forget to stop my Garmin, but do so on 1h56m09s - about a minute slower than I thought I might do it, but still pretty good considering the profile of the route for the last 5 miles.

I grab my goodies (medal, banana, water, nature valley bar), and retrieve my bag. I stretch, and then get changed, before flopping out on the grass and closing my eyes for about ten minutes before I look out for the other two to finish. After about five minutes I spot Michelle - she's standing by the fence near the Finish line looking out for Sooks! She'd already finished about ten minutes earlier, and I missed her as I was having a power nap! We both cheer on Sukeallia as she crosses the line, and then we sit around enjoying the sun and chatting about the race, and what other plans we have to come.

Then we make our way back to the car parks, and head off homeward! Overall a pretty good Half Marathon, and one I'd recommend. I may do it again next year, depending on how it fits in to other plans!

Back at home, and it's not long before the official times are up on the website, and I've done it in 1h56m09s - exactly what I'd recorded on my Garmin!