Well, I'm annoyed. I ended up 8 seconds on the wrong side
of my predicted finishing time (1:31:14). In my defence I
would say that Inverness isn't the flattest of courses and
it was darned windy yesterday, the wind alone probably
accounting for over a minute. So, at the end of the day,
I'm not too upset.
We took a minibus load of runners (8 from our club + one ex-
club member) up the A9 to Inverness yesterday, leaving Troon
just after 7 am. The weather was filthy with rain most of
the way up. As we neared Inverness however, the skies
started to clear and by the time we'd registered, changed,
toileted and warmed up, we had blue sky and sunshine. It was
even starting to feel warm so off came the long sleeves and
we lined up in singlets and shorts.
My race plan was to run as close to 7 minute miles as I
could for the first
1/2 and then pick up the pace (if possible) for the second
1/2. Whilst I knew I ought to be able to manage it my only
recent race experience at
2/sub7 pace has been in 5Ks which doesn't quite give you the
reassurance you want that you'll be able to hold the pace
over a 1/2 marathon.
The first mile of the course runs down river (the Ness) and
with the wind behind us I was being extra careful not to go
out too fast. After a bit of pace adjustment (i.e. slowing
down) I hit the first mile marker at 6:59 which I was
pleased about. We turned our first corner over the bridge
across the Ness and headed back upstream head on into the
wind. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I'd slowed
significantly in that first mile, my pace was now too slow.
Mile 2 came up in 7:15. :-( I wasn't too worried however and
decided that if I was going to run any parts too slow, far
better to do it early rather than late.
For the next two miles I picked up the pace to 7:07.
Between the 3rd and fourth mile there's a signnificant
climb so again, I wasn't too concerend. The fifth mile came
in 6:59 and the sixth in 6:43. I hit the seventh mile at
49:00 dead (a 6:48 mile) and from then on, concentrated on
keeping my pace under the 7 mpm. The weather btw, which had
started out sunny and warm had turned dark, windy and then
it started to rain.
From 10 miles onwards I realised that all was not well with
my guts and the harder I pushed, the harder *they* pushed
(if you know what I mean). An unwelcome distraction at this
point in the race and I started to curse all the high fibre
carrot and celery sticks that I had munched at a dinner
party the night before. Still, with cheeks clenched, and
aided by the wind (not *mine*, you know what I mean) and
downhill stretches, that wasn't too hard and the only real
problem came when we crossed back over the main bridge and
retraced our steps back into the teeth of the wind (which
was now much stronger). I managed to hold my pace to the end
and finished in 1:31:22.
(Full results at
invernesshalfmarathon.co.uk2004 FO.htmOpen ↗)
A sub 1:30 would have been nice and if it hadn't been
for the wind I might just have scraped it (although I
may be kidding myself.) Overall, I'm pretty pleased with
the result.
Although there were three water stations on the course I
didn't feel the need to stop at any of them. Unless it's a
warm day. I'm really not convinced that the few mouthfuls of
water that one can gulp down in a half marathon are of any
use whatsoever. Of course if it's hot then that changes
things. Ditto with regard to gels etc. Again, I'm not
convinced that they would have made any difference for a
runner like myself over that distance.
Lessons learnt?
3.) *Don't* munch you way through a bowl of carrot & celery
sticks the night before a 1/2 marathon! From now on, it's
going to be a low fibre diet the preceeding day for me.
Because I have had problems like this before I had taken
imodium (loperamide) pre-race but it would seem that the
competition was just too great.
4.) Just because you hit the first mile marker at your
expected time, it *doesn't* necessarily mean that you're
running at your planned race pace. Clearly I ran the first
half mile too fast and the next too slow to compensate and
ended up with the right time but wrong pace for the next
mile.
3.) Not so much a lesson as an observation. I took some
Slimfast for my immediate post run rescucitation and once
again, my legs feel great. It's the third time I've used
it after long/hard runs and my impression is that it does
seem to aid recovery. Of course, it might just mean I
didn't really push myself hard enough. ;-)
Splits: 1 6:59 2 7:15 (ugh!) 3 7:07 4 7:07 (From 1 to
3.5miles was all either uphill or head on into the wind) 5
6:59 6 6:43 7 6:48 8 6:58 9 6:55 10 6:48 11 missed 12
13:58 13 6:56
4.1 43:37
Finishing time 1:31:22
Tim
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