The Place: Liversedge, 11am, 15th Feb 2015
The Organisers: Robert Town Road Runners
The Distance: Half Marathon (13.1 miles)
Beforehand: I know nothing about Liversedge, I'm sorry to say. I signed up for this as the weekend I had planned to do a half was unavailable. Liversedge is about an hours drive from my house in Sheffield. I'm fairly confident about this distance. I'm not looking to break records, just finish. I've made the decision to head out the night before for a few waters with some friends, although knowing me that will develop into something other than water.
Prediction: Sub 2 hrs 30
The Day: Well what do you know if developed into cocktails and dancing. Its a good job I know myself, so I interspersed booze with soft drinks. I woke up clear headed with a huge amount of Fog covering Sheffield. Definitely not weather that you want to head out in, but I'd curtailed my Fred Astaire like moves the night before and if I didn't go, then that would have been for nothing. So dragging myself out of bed, I pulled on my running tights, shorts and a long sleeved running top, before remembering to plaster the old nips. That is very important for long distance races, I sense a future uncomfortable post about that.
Getting to Liversedge ,or I suppose to be technical Roberttown, was not difficult at all. A quick nip up the motorway and then some nice country roads. I had however neglected to realise what a popular race this was and had to park a good half a mile away from the start. Not too bad when you're starting but so far when you are finished. And once again after Cardiff Half, I made sure to park my car right by where I'd be running at the 12.5 mile mark, just to add a extra frisson of self control for the end. Fortunately this time I didn't notice it, as I was in full on push to the end mode.
The registration, chip and number collection was in the church hall and went off without a hitch. I struggled to get my timing chip attached to my shoes, but that had nothing to do with the chip.
I ambled out into the cold, again and once again thought of another fine mess I'd got myself into. There was some warms up aerobics going on by the start but I didn't want to waste energy on that. I had 13.1 miles to warm up over.
The gun went off and all 600 of us begun. And oh the hills, so many hills. The entire first mile was down hill, which is nice to start but then you realise its a circular course. What goes down, must trudge up.
I've not been able to find a profile for this year's but last years looks pretty similar. (Thank you to @halfmarathonmad for the photo). As you can see lots of big drops then lots of climbs. I believe it was on the second big drop that someone raced passed me, making worried noises as he seemed to be out of control. I'd hope to give you a mile by mile account but its all a bit of a blur.
I'll be honest with you I may have walked up some of the later hills, at least partly. However I ran the 1st 8 Miles in 75 minutes, according to the marshalls who I kept using for time checks. I find not havine a watch with me helps as I have to listen to my body rather than a ticking clock and it also gives me an excuse for a quick chat with another person.
Towards the end I was spent, I was so tired, as I had had no idea of the hilliness of the course before starting. I'd not looked at the course, figuring each Half will be fairly similar to the last. Alas, twas not so. This was much more challenging course than any I've done before, still hopefully good practice for Sheffield Half in a few months.
I finally finished and well it was A PERSONAL BEST. Somehow despite the hills and the odd bit of walking I had trounced my previous best time. I even managed a sprint finish, just to overtake the lady in front who'd I'd been trailing for miles. So I finished with a chip time of 2 hours 12 minuts 18 seconds and 2 miliseconds.
I got a so delicious bottle of water and a long sleeved tshirt, as shown below. Not the most amount of swag ever but for a smallish locally organised event more than enough.
Pros: Well organised, Friendly, Easy to get to
Cons: Hills,Hills,Hills
Blisters: Yep
Results:
2 hrs 12 mins 18 Secs - NEW PB
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