Bath Half Marathon
Mar. 16th, 2008 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andygatesBloody hell, I aten't dead. Despite the illness, injury, turned ankle, storms, utter lack of training, the Somme theme park and plagues of locusts, I somehow managed to pull in a 2:22 finish. It's a par with my personal-worst, but this time I was 'training through'.
Time for a nice glass of red.
Once upon a time the plan was to go for a PB, aiming for sub-2h. But that was before lurgies (nixing January in toto) and blown knees (limiting my longest training run to 10km) got involved. The plan was pretty much stillborn. Plan B was to take it easy, get round in good order - after all, there's no sense injuring yourself on the season-opening motivator, is there?
Pre-race was wet. Wet wet wet, Marty Pellow wet, and the Bath Rec turned into a charming recreation of the Somme. Or possibly Paschendale; take your pick. Slippery, slimy mud and rain rain rain... and a delayed start. There were many shivering grumpy people huddled like penguins in the marquees, swapping war stories and Dextrosol tabs. Then the tannoy blared out, "Over the top, boys!" and we were off into no-man's land. Ten minutes after the start, I crossed the start. This amuses me greatly (this was my first massive-participation run).
The rain had stopped; it was cool and cloudy, ideal once people were moving. The first two miles were a salmon run. Due to poor planning (a condition that afflicts me and General Haig so a greater or lesser extent) I was trapped among the fun-runners - but really, that was the sort of pace I was up for. Soon we settled in and trundled round. My pace group for the race included a cow, a pig, and a guy with a surfboard. Dude, that's showing off.
Plan was always to find a comfy pace and trundle along. Comfy seemed to mean a heart-rate of 155, ish, so I ditched all the pace nonsense to stick to that. It's surprisingly tough to run that easily; yay for techno-toys. And yay for experience, really - I may not be fitter or faster than before but wiser, oh yes. I start to see how the elder statesmen of endurance sport do it, now. Anyhoo, back to the drama: there was none. Water, lucozade, water, lucozade, then dear gods that last mile is a drag. The highlight was a personal one in that for the first time I ran the whole way. No walk-breaks. The second lap felt almost as good as the first, and that was all down to the easy pace. Likewise the lack of injuries.
Apparently, off the back of very little planning and off-season fitness, I can now crack out a slow but respectable half marathon. I'm rather chuffed with that as a baseline. It'll be handy when the zombies come.
Oh, and the totty was top class. ;)
Pre-race was wet. Wet wet wet, Marty Pellow wet, and the Bath Rec turned into a charming recreation of the Somme. Or possibly Paschendale; take your pick. Slippery, slimy mud and rain rain rain... and a delayed start. There were many shivering grumpy people huddled like penguins in the marquees, swapping war stories and Dextrosol tabs. Then the tannoy blared out, "Over the top, boys!" and we were off into no-man's land. Ten minutes after the start, I crossed the start. This amuses me greatly (this was my first massive-participation run).
The rain had stopped; it was cool and cloudy, ideal once people were moving. The first two miles were a salmon run. Due to poor planning (a condition that afflicts me and General Haig so a greater or lesser extent) I was trapped among the fun-runners - but really, that was the sort of pace I was up for. Soon we settled in and trundled round. My pace group for the race included a cow, a pig, and a guy with a surfboard. Dude, that's showing off.
Plan was always to find a comfy pace and trundle along. Comfy seemed to mean a heart-rate of 155, ish, so I ditched all the pace nonsense to stick to that. It's surprisingly tough to run that easily; yay for techno-toys. And yay for experience, really - I may not be fitter or faster than before but wiser, oh yes. I start to see how the elder statesmen of endurance sport do it, now. Anyhoo, back to the drama: there was none. Water, lucozade, water, lucozade, then dear gods that last mile is a drag. The highlight was a personal one in that for the first time I ran the whole way. No walk-breaks. The second lap felt almost as good as the first, and that was all down to the easy pace. Likewise the lack of injuries.
Apparently, off the back of very little planning and off-season fitness, I can now crack out a slow but respectable half marathon. I'm rather chuffed with that as a baseline. It'll be handy when the zombies come.
Oh, and the totty was top class. ;)
Time for a nice glass of red.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-16 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 09:22 am (UTC)I was thinking of you (and also Fialta & Xeeny, elsewhere) as I lay in bed, sipping tea and listening to the rain.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 08:01 pm (UTC)Fuck. I was either lucky, or I've developed some Yoda-like transcendence and leatheriness.
What tri's (aiee, the grocer's apostrophe!) are you going this year old chap?
no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 09:12 am (UTC)