Surrey Half Marathon 2016

Around about October last year, I received a text from my sister explaining that she was planning on taking on her first half marathon for charity and wanted to know if I wanted to do it as well. Not one to turn down a race, especially one I have never tried before, I entered the Surrey Half Marathon 2016.

The race was scheduled for a 9:00am start on Sunday 13th March 2016 at Woking leisure centre. Now, my training for this race wasn't as thorough as I had originally planned but I felt a lot better prepared for this than I did for the Longleat 10k (less said about that the better).

I travelled down the night before and stayed at my sister's house in Epsom. Lucie and the boys were meant to come too, but unfortunately both lads were poorly, which was gutting as I love seeing them at the finish line of a race.

I was excited about this race. I wasn't expecting to match my time from the Severn Bridge half, but was hopeful of a half decent time. It was also a chance to race in my new trainers which I had for my birthday; these beauties:

Adidas Ultra Boost, as recommended after a gait analysis at the Triathlon Shop in Bristol. They are a very comfortable, lightweight shoe which provide a good level of support around the ankle and an excellent amount of cushioning on impact.

I digress, back to the race. I woke early on the Sunday morning and had a massive bowl of porridge and a banana. I was in good spirits and couldn't wait to get started. My sister on the other hand was nervous as hell, which was fair enough. I remember how I felt the morning of my first Half Marathon. It was the Stroud Half, back in 2009 and I felt sick right up to the start. We left the house around 7am, stopping to pick up two of my sisters friends who were also taking part, and arrived at Woking at about 8am.

The race village was set up outside Woking Leisure Centre, and was already very busy. There were a few stalls selling various things, a DJ and music playing and the weather was dry and sunny. All in all a good vibe. The bag drop off was well organised and after several visits to the toilets we headed to the start. I wasn't sure which time slot to line up with. I didn't think I'd manage the same time as the Severn Bridge half so I found a place between the sub 40 and sub 50 markers. Around four and a half thousand turned up for this race and there was a good atmosphere at the start. The countdown arrived. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and we were off!

I got off to a good start, and managed to get up to a pace of 4 minutes 20 a kilometre. I didn't know how long I could keep that pace up for, but I kept going. I changed my race plan, and decided to try and keep my average pace as close to 4 minutes 30 as I could. This seemed to work well. The route was nice, with some fantastic support coming out to watch, including many live bands and small orchestras which were a real boost. It wasn't quite as flat as the organisers made out but the hills weren't too bad. The one section of the race I wasn't keen on was a long downhill stretch in the middle which seemed to go on and on and when you got to the bottom you had to do a U turn and head straight back up (see map below). This was a tough section, although it was nice seeing the other runners coming down, I even spotted my sister who was going along nicely at the 2hr10 marker. A nice touch here, was placing a split timer at 10km. According to the splits, I ran the first 10km in under 44 minutes. Considering my 10k PB is 44:48, I was very happy with how it was going.

My pace started to slow a little by the time I got to 9 miles, with my Garmin reading 4 minutes 37 per kilometre. Still, not bad and I felt comfortable-ish.  Miles 10 and 11 were tough but went by with no drama and so came the final push. I slowed a little on  mile 12, thinking I would save some energy for a grand stand finish, which kind of worked. The mile 12 marker came and went, so I tried to up my pace to finish, but it didn't increase by much. The final mile seemed to go on and on forever, but finally I could see the big, red inflatable finish line ahead so I went for it. Only, it wasn't the big, red inflatable finish line, it was a bloody petrol station! I had gone for my fast finish only to realise I still had a quarter of a mile to go. What a numpty! I wasn't happy. Anyway, I pushed on and rounded the last corner where I could see the real, big, red inflatable finish line and a home straight lined with supporters. I had a little left in the tank and went as fast as my legs would take me and finally crossed the line.

My official finishing time was: 1:37:02. A new PB! An unexpected PB, and I was over the moon.

Overall this was a good race and I enjoyed it, but one negative for me was the lack of goodies at the end. This race was over £40 to enter, which is quite a lot for a half marathon, and the only thing the finishers received was a medal, all be it a nice medal. However, I have entered cheaper events, with awesome goody bags for the finishers including a T-shirt and other various treats. To be honest, it's probably just me being picky but I do love a free T-shirt! I shouldn't complain, this race got me a PB and that's better than any goody bag.

Bring on the next event!

Rating:

Pros

• Well organised
• Bag drop off
• Atmosphere
• Great support
• Lovely route
• Plenty of water stations

Cons

• No T-Shirt
• No goody bag
• Petrol station disguised as a finish line

Longleat 10k

That's right, I'm actually writing a blog post! It's only been 5 months since my last. Really bad!

Anyway, I hope to make amends with regular posts as we are now in 2016, race year! Infact I can't believe it's March already. My training has been a little inconsistent of late to say the least so there is no time to lose with getting back on track. More about that in future posts because for now I want to focus on my first race of the year.

For the Christmas just gone I was spoilt! Along with some clothes and bits and bobs, my wife bought me a new triathlon wetsuit (review to follow)  and entry to the Longeat 10k race. Awesome! Not everyone's cup of tea to have a race as a present but I bloody loved it. The race was on Sunday 7th February so I'm a little late with my report but here goes.

Originally this was meant to be a half marathon which went through the safari Park but this changed and the race became a 10k starting outside Longleat House. A positive for the race was that all entrants had the chance to buy discounted tickets for the park after the race. So with this in mind, my wife surprised me further by not only booking tickets for the park, but a hotel for the night before so we could make a family weekend of it.

On the morning of the race I woke up feeling rough! I'd not been feeling 100% the week leading up to it but shrugged it off. But that morning I woke with a sore throat, blocked and headache. Really, the best thing to do would have been to miss the race and stay in bed, but I hate to let a race entry go to waste, especially as it was a Christmas present. I ignored it, put my kit on and decided to do it anyway. I thought I might be able to sweat out any illness. Now I'm no doctor but I don't think it works like that.

Anyway, I made it to the start line on a very cold Sunday morning. The forecast had predicted rain, but despite the cold, it was a bright and dry morning; one less thing to worry about. The organisers of the race didn’t really think through their approach to parking and with 5 minutes to go to the gun, there was still at least a mile long queue of cars, filled with increasingly angry runners, still waiting to get in. This meant the start had to be delayed which then frustrated the people ready and waiting at the start as it was bloody freezing.

A very, muffled voice said something on a poor sound system which I could not make out, but after he’d finished people started shuffling to the line, so I guessed it was time to get going. I gave my wife and kids a hug and joined the crowd. A few minutes later, a hooter sounded and we were off.

It was a very congested start making it difficult to get a decent pace going to start with. Eventually the road widened and I could get going. Excellent! Or so I thought. As it turns out, this 10k is one if the hilliest 10ks I’ve ever run and before we had even reached the 1km marker a beast of a hill had presented itself! It was steep with sweeping corners. It flattened out at the top and I thought, ‘nailed it, let’s crack on!’ This was merely a false sense of security as this flat was nothing more than a slight respite. Ahead of me I could now see an even steeper hill which wasn’t pleasant to run up at all. All this and we had barely made it to the 2km mark. Add the fact I couldn’t breathe through my nose properly and feeling rough, I was ruined!

But as the saying goes, what goes up must come down, and I eventually reached a nice long downhill. A chance to regroup and increase my pace. The route itself was very scenic, passing through country lanes and eventually coming back towards Longleat House. This was nice and flat and my pace was good at this stage. I saw Lucie and the boys cheering me on; gave Madoc a high five and pushed on. It was going quite well at this point, but then I saw it. The route came back on itself and headed toward another nasty looking hill. Not as steep as the first but a pain in the arse none the less. As I started the climb I could feel myself starting to flag, it just wasn't happening . I dragged myself to the top, still following my one golden rule of no walking, and caught my breath. 'Surely that's it for major hills,' I thought. WRONG! To my delight, I had to climb the hill from the start for a second time. This time it hurt. It took a lot to get to the top, and I have never wanted to stop more in a race in my life. The downhill after this was a welcome relief and I knew the end was close. I had a little left in the tank to increase my speed on the home straight but it wasn't enough to stop me finishing in a shocking time.

I eventually crossed the line in 50minutes, a whole 6 minutes off my personal best 10k time. I was not happy and felt like absolute crap. My plan to sweat out the illness had only made things worse. I found the family and headed back to the hotel to get showered and put this race behind me. All in all, a bad day at the office.

On the plus side, Me, Lucie and the boys had a great time in the safari park after the race. I never get tired of watching Monkeys destroy people's cars (the buggers even snapped the back windscreen wiper of our car!). Every cloud and all that.

Overall Rating: 

Pros

• Scenic route
• Awesome medal and T-shirt
• Discounted safari park tickets

Cons

• Parking
• Lack of support and atmosphere
• THE HILLS! (not a con, just a pain)

Tinpot Sprint 2016- Race Report

Place: Pond's Forge Sports Centre, Sheffield

Organiser: Me, Myself and I

Distance: 750m swim, 20k Bike, 5K run

More after the jump.