Stroud Half Marathon
On Sunday I competed in the Stroud half marathon, my second race since returning from my holiday.
I suppose with hindsight, it was always going to be a big ask. To do two half marathons in as many weekends is tough at the best of times, but when I have just got back from a very lazy and booze-fuelled holiday, and when my body probably still hasn't recovered from my first marathon, I was probably asking too much of myself.
My problem is, I enjoy these events so much that whenever there is one in my area I want to enter. I found out last year that the Stroud half usually takes place the week after the Swindon half, so I made a mental note to do both this year, and booked my place when it was advertised on the internet.
I had had a good few days' training between the two races and had a long chat with Anthony on the Friday evening. It was good to catch up, and I told him I was still finding it tough to get back into it. His advice was simple; lose the excess weight from my holiday by keeping the diet strict and laying off the booze, concentrate on speedwork to make myself sharp, and enter lots of races to get myself back into it. He also told me to forget about marathon training until the New Year, and concentrate on getting my half marathon time down to 1 hour 40 minutes by Christmas.
It's nice that he thinks I am capable of that, but I think it may be a bit unrealistic. I have entered the Bath half marathon in March of next year, and am hoping to get my time down to 1 hour 40 minutes by then.
My plan for the Saturday was to watch the cricket but after yet another dismal effort by England I soon lost interest. In the early evening I went to see "The Devil Wears Prada", which I wasn't planning on seeing, but I'm glad I went. It was a bit of a chick flick, which I often enjoy, and Meryl Streep's flawless performance will surely earn her an Oscar nomination.
I travelled up to the race with a mate from the running club, Tim. We had never travelled to a race together so it was good to get to know him a little better. Having company always makes the event more memorable. We met up with one of the other lads, Kev, when we found the race HQ. It says something about how my running has improved that I can now go out running with these boys; they are a lot faster than me (both have PBs of under 1 hour 40 at this distance) but I still manage to keep up on training runs with them. I could never have done that a few months ago.
There were a lot of runners taking part in the race - some 2000 ostensibly. There seemed to be a good mix of club runners and less serious competitors. I felt good starting off, and I think I made the mistake of starting too quickly. My pace for the first three miles was around 8 minute miles, and while I felt ok I knew in the back of my mind I couldn't maintain it.
I definitely slowed down between miles 5 to 10 even though my breathing settled down then. Slowing down at water stations wasn't a problem as there weren't enough of them! Only at the 5 and 11 mile markers were there water stations and this clearly wasn't enough. I had taken a bottle of Powerade with me in any case as I had noted this shortcoming in the race information. Less experienced runners would probably not have known how much of a problem this might turn out to be, and had the weather been warmer I think some people could have been seriously struggling.
The last few miles were the worst. I was absolutely exhausted and realised I was paying for going off too quickly. I thought to myself at this point that I was probably taking the wrong approach, i.e. I should be enjoying the race and easing myself back into training instead of going for a good time. As Tim said to me later, you're not going to get a PB every time, your body just won't allow it to happen.
In the end I managed to get across the line in 1 hour 53 minutes 58 seconds. At the time I was very disappointed as this was slower than I managed at Swindon, but later I took a more philosophical approach. Tim and Kev had also registered disappointing times (for them!) and had found it tough going.
I was also disappointed that the commemorative t-shirts had sold out by the time I finished. There were plenty of people coming in after me who would be disappointed, so this was bad planning by the race organisers. I made my feelings known later by posting a report on the runners' world website.
After the race I spent the rest of the day just chilling out with the Sunday Times and a few films on TV. I know I should be laying off the booze at the moment but I did have quite a bit of alcohol including champagne in the evening while watching "Ghost Whisperer". I worked out during the race that this was my tenth half marathon since I did Swindon last year. So that's ten in 13 months, or if you take into account the fact that there were none I could have entered in December, January and February, an average of one a month. Not too shabby at all.
So I think you'll agree that in the end I had just cause for celebration.
Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, October 2006
I suppose with hindsight, it was always going to be a big ask. To do two half marathons in as many weekends is tough at the best of times, but when I have just got back from a very lazy and booze-fuelled holiday, and when my body probably still hasn't recovered from my first marathon, I was probably asking too much of myself.
My problem is, I enjoy these events so much that whenever there is one in my area I want to enter. I found out last year that the Stroud half usually takes place the week after the Swindon half, so I made a mental note to do both this year, and booked my place when it was advertised on the internet.
I had had a good few days' training between the two races and had a long chat with Anthony on the Friday evening. It was good to catch up, and I told him I was still finding it tough to get back into it. His advice was simple; lose the excess weight from my holiday by keeping the diet strict and laying off the booze, concentrate on speedwork to make myself sharp, and enter lots of races to get myself back into it. He also told me to forget about marathon training until the New Year, and concentrate on getting my half marathon time down to 1 hour 40 minutes by Christmas.
It's nice that he thinks I am capable of that, but I think it may be a bit unrealistic. I have entered the Bath half marathon in March of next year, and am hoping to get my time down to 1 hour 40 minutes by then.
My plan for the Saturday was to watch the cricket but after yet another dismal effort by England I soon lost interest. In the early evening I went to see "The Devil Wears Prada", which I wasn't planning on seeing, but I'm glad I went. It was a bit of a chick flick, which I often enjoy, and Meryl Streep's flawless performance will surely earn her an Oscar nomination.
I travelled up to the race with a mate from the running club, Tim. We had never travelled to a race together so it was good to get to know him a little better. Having company always makes the event more memorable. We met up with one of the other lads, Kev, when we found the race HQ. It says something about how my running has improved that I can now go out running with these boys; they are a lot faster than me (both have PBs of under 1 hour 40 at this distance) but I still manage to keep up on training runs with them. I could never have done that a few months ago.
There were a lot of runners taking part in the race - some 2000 ostensibly. There seemed to be a good mix of club runners and less serious competitors. I felt good starting off, and I think I made the mistake of starting too quickly. My pace for the first three miles was around 8 minute miles, and while I felt ok I knew in the back of my mind I couldn't maintain it.
I definitely slowed down between miles 5 to 10 even though my breathing settled down then. Slowing down at water stations wasn't a problem as there weren't enough of them! Only at the 5 and 11 mile markers were there water stations and this clearly wasn't enough. I had taken a bottle of Powerade with me in any case as I had noted this shortcoming in the race information. Less experienced runners would probably not have known how much of a problem this might turn out to be, and had the weather been warmer I think some people could have been seriously struggling.
The last few miles were the worst. I was absolutely exhausted and realised I was paying for going off too quickly. I thought to myself at this point that I was probably taking the wrong approach, i.e. I should be enjoying the race and easing myself back into training instead of going for a good time. As Tim said to me later, you're not going to get a PB every time, your body just won't allow it to happen.
In the end I managed to get across the line in 1 hour 53 minutes 58 seconds. At the time I was very disappointed as this was slower than I managed at Swindon, but later I took a more philosophical approach. Tim and Kev had also registered disappointing times (for them!) and had found it tough going.
I was also disappointed that the commemorative t-shirts had sold out by the time I finished. There were plenty of people coming in after me who would be disappointed, so this was bad planning by the race organisers. I made my feelings known later by posting a report on the runners' world website.
After the race I spent the rest of the day just chilling out with the Sunday Times and a few films on TV. I know I should be laying off the booze at the moment but I did have quite a bit of alcohol including champagne in the evening while watching "Ghost Whisperer". I worked out during the race that this was my tenth half marathon since I did Swindon last year. So that's ten in 13 months, or if you take into account the fact that there were none I could have entered in December, January and February, an average of one a month. Not too shabby at all.
So I think you'll agree that in the end I had just cause for celebration.
Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, October 2006
posted by Jon | 7:37 pm
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