This is my second race of the week having run a PB in the MID-CHESHIRE 5K SUMMER 2019 3 days before. So far this year I have ran PB’s in every distance beside the half marathon, although, I did run the first half of the Tokyo marathon 1 min faster than my current half marathon PB, which I guess is a PB?
I haven’t properly raced a half marathon since the ROCK n ROLL LIVERPOOL HALF MARATHON last May. My coach advised me to not race this one too, instead, we will use it as another long tempo run in preparation for the New York City marathon in 3 months time.
My plan was to run a 1 mile warm up and 3 sets of 10 sec strides, run the half marathon at my goal marathon pace of 6:45 min/mile then 2 mile cool down giving me a 16 mile long run, with 13.1 miles at marathon pace.
I have not run more than 12 miles in one go since I tore my calf muscle in May so running 16 miles is a big step forward and also running 13.1 miles at 6:45 marathon pace is something I haven’t ever done.
So a lot of unknowns going into the race, will my calf hold up to the stresses of running a half marathon, will my body and general fitness be up to the challenge of 13.1 miles at marathon pace.
Mile 1 – 6:32, 6:42, 6:45, 6:38, 6:39, 6:44
I started off pretty close to the front but didn’t want to get in the way of those planning on racing hard today. I was just using this as a training run after all so I didn’t want to be spoiling other peoples races by being a roadblock.
That said, once we got going I was overtaking plenty of people who clearly were doing the opposite to me and getting in the way, lining up in a far faster group than they should have been.
As a result, my first mile was quite a bit quicker than my target pace, but not to worry, it’s ok as long as I bring the pace back down.
I think I managed to pace the first 6 miles quite well, I always have this nack of running a few seconds under my goal pace just in case there is a hill towards the end of that split, I have those few seconds in my pocket if I slow down. That results in most splits being faster than planned.
I reached halfway and was feeling good. The calf felt great, the legs were fine, breathing under control and consistent, more importantly, the pace felt good and not too fast.
Mile 7 – 13.1: 6:42, 6:46, 6:36, 6:40, 6:39, 6:41, 6:45
The next 5 miles went without any issues too, as I was about to tick over to 12 miles I remember thinking that in general, it had all gone to plan. My body was feeling ok and coping with the mileage and pace well. It almost felt like I hadn’t been out injured but I knew I was now heading into that unknown zone. I hadn’t run more than 12 miles.
I just told myself, I haven’t run over 12 miles for 4 months, but I have done it probably well over 50 times during the last three years, I know how to do it and deep down, I know my body can handle it. Besides, it’s only one more mile.
Pretty much as soon as I started mile 13 I got a stitch. Something I haven’t had during a race before. I tried to take deep breathes and get over it, this sort of worked so I was able to push on a bit more, my pace was over 7:00, I needed to focus and get back on target, I haven’t come this far to miss my last mile split.
Again, in the last quarter of a mile the stitch came back. By now I had been passed by one person and I could hear someone else coming up behind me. Just in front, there were three guys who were slowing. I could see that I was catching them so I put the stitch to the back of my mind the best I could and used those guys as my motivation to keep pushing despite the discomfort.
I passed all three of them with ease and could see one more guy who I might get to if I really kicked over that last 0.1 mile.
I left my sprint finish a little later this time, I knew that the stitch was stopping me from going full tilt but I put the hammer down as we turned for the finish and flew passed the guy in the blue top above.
I crossed the finish line in 43rd place in a time of 1:27.54, beating my PB time from Liverpool by 93 seconds.
As great as it felt to have set a new PB, I hadn’t really pushed hard today. I know there is more in the tank and I feel I could run sub 1:26, possibly go under 1:25 in the near future. I had paced today at marathon pace, also, this was only my third run over 10 miles since April and I came into it on tired legs with no taper.
I did really enjoy the run today, as ever RunThroughUK put on a great event with a cracking medal and best of all, their traditional homemade flapjack, worth the entry fee alone…. kind od, in an expensive flapjack way, but you get what I mean.
The main thing to take from today was 16 miles banked on the road to the New York Marathon. Some good miles run at my new goal marathon pace too. This pace still scares me a little. I know I ran TOKYO MARATHON 6 months ago in 3:01.09 but to be targeting a marathon at 6:45 pace still sounds crazy to me. Just two years ago I ran PARIS MARATHON and I was over the moon to have run just over 8:45 pace.
Knowing that I can run half marathon distance at 6:41 pace, in the end, has given me a massive confidence boost. I might actually be able to do this, especially after another 9 weeks of training and building those long runs further and faster as we go and with the added bonus of two weeks taper before race day.
For now, I am really happy to have bagged another PB today, my second PB of the week, third if you count the 1 mile PB I ran as part of the Mid Cheshire 5k. I will be returning to the half marathon distance again in March as part of my build-up for the Boston Marathon. I will definitely be targeting sub 85 at the Big Half on 1st March 2020, thats a goal I want to hit next year.
The Cheshire Runner. 
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