I entered the Plymouth half marathon a good few months ago, to give myself some motivation to get out and run before the season starts, as I'm terrible for just wanting to ride my bike all the time else! I also ended up entering the BUCS 25m TT which unfortunately fell on the day before the half. Here's a quick report of how each race went, and on how I'm feeling now with only a few weeks until one of my 'A races'.
On Saturday morning I was up at 5 to go and meet Alex and Nicola who were the other two Plymouth students racing in the event. We got the van packed up and headed off at 6 on the couple hundred mile journey up to Cumnor near Oxford. We arrived in good time and signed in at HQ, I was feeling relatively relaxed and started to get ready and warm up. In the warm up I could tell that it was going to be a pretty hard race as it was very windy, and on the undulating and open, A road course we were going to be very exposed to this. I had a decent warm up and moved down to the start position with a couple of minutes to spare before my start time. I set off and averaged a decent pace for the first few miles, as it started with a decent stretch of downhill. It was hard work with deep wheels on and blustery crosswinds, but I got to the turnaround with an average speed of over 25mph and was feeling good having gone past a few other competitors. The second half went surprisingly quickly and although by the end I was really hurting, it was nice to finish strongly with an average speed of 26mph and a time of 57.55. It was good enough for 31st place out of a field of around 100 guys, some of whom were very quick so I was very pleased.
After the race I had a decent length warm down, put on some compression wear and got about eating and drinking a lot! Big thanks to Alex for driving all the way up and back in a day, in a big hire van!
I woke up nice and early on Sunday morning ready for the race start at 9am. I was feeling quite stiff, and my calves were fairly tight but I wasn't too worried as I hadn't put any expectation on myself to do any particular time. I got down to the race start area with my Dad who was also running, and my Mum who was support crew for the day. I didn't really bother warming up too much, and just got myself into the sub 1hr 30 pen nice and early and relaxed. The race started and I went along with the pace of the pack and sat myself about 30 places back. We started out fairly quick as there was a decent bit of descent and everyone was jostling for position. I went with it and I think did around 5:50 minute miles for the first few. I then settled into a rhythm and my legs started to loosen up so I carried on at a similar pace and took a few positions. Before I knew it we were into the climb up Billacombe road and up to Saltram House, and I was still feeling good. I knew the course headed downhill and was basically flat from this point in, and after looking at my Garmin, I knew I was in a position to go for a sub 80 minute race. This knowledge really helped spur me on and I managed to hold onto a decent pace on the flat right through to about 11 miles, and during this time managed to make up another few positions. There was a last small incline up to the finish on the hoe, and knowing that I had 3 or 4 other guys pretty much alongside me I decided to have a little kick and see if I could hold onto my position. I did end up getting passed by one guy up the final climb but managed to drop the other few and got onto the final straight of the hoe with the clock time at about 1.19.30. I sprinted to the end and managed to come in, in a time of exactly 1.20.00 so I was very happy. It also sat me in a finish position of 18th overall out of well over 4000 competitors, which considering I'm not really a runner, and certainly not a distance runner, I was ecstatic with!
So after a successful weekend of racing, how am I feeling about the fast approaching start of the triathlon season? On the bike I'm feeling fit from the base training I did all winter, I just need to really keep on at the speed work now to set me up well for the flat sprint distance events such as the British sprint champs in a few weeks time. Running wise I'm feeling better than I ever have. I feel fit and I'm feeling like I'm really starting to get faster so from a Triathlon perspective it should bode well for a fast finish. My swimming is still my discipline that I really need to be working on, but I'm back in the pool now, and it wont be long until I can start with some open water training to try and start my races well.
I know these blogs can get a bit boring, so if you've made it this far then thank you for your support! Back to the joys of revising for my upcoming exams now! Cheerzen
