So after going to bed and setting 5 alarms to make sure I got up in good time for my morning porridge I had a restless night. Probably a mixture of nerves and excitement but also possibly just me as I quite often have trouble getting off.
So it was up at 6, down for breakfast and a coffee and then out the door by 7:30 after the usual pre-run “precautions”.
As this was my first “proper” race event I did not have a good idea of timings so arrived in plenty of time and spent 45 minutes pacing up and down.
Eventually the race was on. We started just off of the market square in Derby with a walk to the start and then we were off. (With only 2289 runners the wait to hit the start gate did not take long. To be honest I do not remember much of the first half of the run other than the crowds cheering us on which was lovely - I made sure to keep an eye out for children trying to high-5 us as we passed them and gave them a hearty/gentle tap as appropriate.
Around 10k I started to struggle - I had not gone off too fast what was wrong - I had done the distance!! Well what was stated as a flat route turned out to be slightly downhill during the first half and slightly uphill in the second! Having done nearly all my training on the local canal towpaths this came as a bit of a shock to the system. I decided I needed a break, thank you for the kind words on a previous post to enjoy the race this helped a lot. I started to run the flat and try to run some of the hillier bits but then walk the remainder.
In some ways this was good, in another the brain had capitulated to walking the hills. Given that most of the 2nd half was uphill (albeit a gentle incline) this was not good.
Fortunately the crowds and other runners came to the rescue and I eventually increased the %age of run to walk.
As we got nearer to the finish arriving back into the city I knew I needed to finish with a run - around 400m to go whilst running (thankfully) I saw some familiar faces - my family - beams of joy and I just had to go over and high-5 them. Just past them to the finish line of course it just had to go up yet another hill. I managed a bit more of a spirited run down the home straight which was nice to be able to do - and finished - yeah I FINISHED.
My original target was sub 3 hours, as my distance increased I started to believe I could get nearer to 2:30. In the end 2h50(22s). A mixture of pleasure and annoyance - but in a good way. Pleased to have finished my first half after where I was 2 years ago and annoyed because I so wanted to run it all.
Lessons learnt - oh yes!
1) Do not do all training along a canal towpath, just because a HM says it is flat - does not mean that it is
2) Make sure to add some hill repeats into the running routine to improve my ability to cope with them
3) Add some strength training as my form goes to pot
4) Next time do not pick up an injury in the middle of training and leave plenty of time to repeat the middle runs before moving on
So at the moment, I feel rather stiff, happy but stiff. Tomorrow I will probably still be stiff - but I will also be happy. Hopefully by the end of the week the stifness will have abated - but I will still be happy.
Happy Christmas everyone 😉🌲🎁
Written by
Richard7
Half Marathon
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...and in a few days there will be no stiffness at all Richard and you will just have the satisfaction of a goal achieved and a lovely piece of bling to show that you did it! 👏👏👏👏💪😀🏃🏻 Big congratulations - now rest up well!🙂
Fabulous. Huge congratulations, a great achievement. Now you have a time to beat for your next PB - and I just LOVE that you are already talking about the next one
I would add a lesson 0 (which takes some pressure off of lessons 1 and 2) - before entering the next one, check out the course elevation profile on Strava or Mapmyrun and make sure it really is FLAT .... unless of course you've decided you like hills ?
Thank you - I had a look at the route from last year and it didn't look too bad. When you look at the overall elevation it's miniscule but it just didn't give up. I was looking at my stats about 3 to 4 weeks ago and looking at some other runners and realised my elevation gain had been significantly lower than other people's.
I have had it easy. Thinking about running HM along the canal towpath just for fun. My next HM race I hope to be better prepared. 😀
Haha. I was literally just looking at a November Half along our local stretch of the GU canal. It gives an elevation profile as part of the write up (perfect) - a marginal but steady climb from 5.5k, then climbs 14m over the very last 700m (and reviews talk about that being muddy and slippy and interesting without trail shoes!). I do quite fancy that one apart from the obvious ....
Sounds wise - immediately when I got home I got an email about signing up for next year's Derby HM for a reduced price. Going to have a look around - variety could be nice.
Fantastic !congratulations on your 1st HM ! You sound like it was enjoyable enough to do another ,glad you're enjoying the aftermath and that happy feeling of achievement 😊😆👍💪🏃🏃🏃
Just amazing Richard well done. Lots of really helpful advice as I start preparing for my first HM in October. Will certainly look at elevation and mud! Although I think the Cardiff streets should be reasonable! 🥳🤩🏅
Go for a gentle trot round the block today! Give your legs a shake down 😃
Well done! Sounds like you did really well and had a good time. Nice looking medal there 👍🏅. Canal tow paths are fine but I find them too flat! Interesting though which makes the time pass quicker. A mix of terrains is a good idea for your training runs 💪
I hope you feel fully restored after some rest and good grub, ready to take on another adventure 👍🙂
Thanks MW been following an every other day routine so will have a good recovery run tomorrow. I also have a visit to the Derby Runner planned as I need to replace my shoes - they have done their job and need to be retired 😀
Wow well done you! Try and forget the annoyance, you probably didn’t loose that much time by walking a bit and you were under 3h! Hill training will be good in any case but for now enjoy your wonderful achievement!
Congratulations on being both sub-target, and having a great run! It's so easy to get carried away with timings on the day and forget that we are mostly doing this running lark for a balance of challenge and fun. Sounds like you got it just right 😊
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Race report - Eastbourne Half
HUHM race report and post-race follow up.
RACE REPORT - BRIGHTON MARATHON 
Hastings Runners 5 Mile Race Report 😁
