My 1st half marathon :-)

[John_W]

Hellooo!

I haven't posted for a long time. Following on from a life-changing (for the better) 2016, 2017 was the best year of my life. Focusing on the important things in life and making *me* happy. So....

A few days away from my 3rd Runniversay, I ran my very 1st half marathon today - the Four Villages Half starting at Helsby in Cheshire. Have a look at #4vhm on Twitter and Instagram to see photos and an idea of how miserable the conditions were

Wow.... That. Was. COLD. 2°C, sleet, wind, rain, slippy, muddy, big puddles. Pretty horrible.

1:43:29 - very satisfying!

But a week of rest and some carb-loading in the last few days helped to sustain my target pace of 8 min/miles (5 min/km) until the 10 mile/16k mark. Pushed on from there with 'only' a parkrun to go and the downhill finish resulted in the last 5k being my quickest of the race.

There was more in the tank if I'd wanted to cross the finish line feeling awful but I didn't ;-)....

I need to save myself - another post will tell you why

My splits:

strava.com/activities/13681...

Cheers

John

[Fishypieface Graduate]

Blimey, very well done to you! That's an enormous achievement... that makes me shudder even to think about doing myself! You must be really proud and that time, well, I'm no expert, but it looks pretty fast to me!

[HeleneCorsa Graduate]

Brilliant achievement - and woah, what a time! Speedy Gonzales! Looking forward to hearing what's in the offing next...

[hblewett Graduate]

That's brilliant -well done!