29 September 2013 - Barns Green 1/2 Marathon 2013

I covered my plan for this run in Saturday's post (it's name includes 'the plan' if that helps) but as so often happens when racing this lasted until about five seconds after the start. In the rush of bodies I just went with it, in the hope of ending up about the right place in the pack. As you come to expect with these races most people don't know their paces all that well, and so despite the fact that we all lined up in order of target finish times I spent the first few minutes overtaking people. I should say this wasn't as bad as it has been in the past, probably due to starting further forward.

To give the other competitors their due, I did start off faster than I should, completing the first mile in seven minutes. As I had found during my last few practice runs I couldn't settle at the pace I wanted, not aided by the continual sloping up and down of the course, and yo-yo'd around target. The first few miles are consistently uphill but despite this the target pace felt easy, so presumably the taper worked.

The second and third miles were completed in 07:16 and 07:12 respectively. The bigger issue is that my heart rate was over target rate the entire time, when I was doing it I attributed it to the uphill, but it was never much lower. On the plus side this was just about maintainable, but more on that later.

I ended up taking the gel at four and a bit miles, the extra bit as the four mile marker is just before the hill up to Itchingfield, and I didn't want to faff around while running up it. Like all the other hills this one was much longer than I expected, despite the fact I run it regularly.

After this point things level out for most of the rest of the course, apart from the hill at mile eight. By that point I was struggling, with my quads especially painful. I definitely need to do more hill work before Barns Green next year. At mile nine I was exactly on target, averaging 07:15 miles. Unfortunately I didn't have enough left to carry it home, and started mentally pleading with myself at 10.5 miles and there were half-paces of walking. The pace slipped for the remaining section, averaging 07:51 for the last 4 miles.

As I approached the line I didn't think I had any more to give, and was simply trotting to the finish. Then two people tried to overtake me in the last twenty metres, and with a yell of 'You Bastards' I broke into a full sprint, and overtook them before the line.

0 miles to go...

Mile Splits:
1: 07:00
2: 07:16
3: 07:12
4: 07:00
5: 07:36
6: 06:56
7: 07:40
8: 07:20
9: 07:12
10: 07:56
11: 07:48
12: 07:52
13: 07:48

Official time: 1:37:55
Official distance: 13.1 miles
Average pace: 07:28
Average heart rate: 185 (skewed by not stopping my watch for seven minutes after the finish)
Map: Here