Owls Count

Yesterday saw a trip to Windsor to run in the 26th Windsor Half Marathon. A 1pm start saw an odd morning routine based around deciding when to eat and then travelling early to avoid the traffic.

A bit before the start of the race I went for a slow warm up. This did not have the desired effect of readying the body for racing and instead left my calf muscles tight and reminded me that my legs had run a lot of miles recently. I decided to start a bit further back than I would have done otherwise and also carried a bottle of sports drink as it was fairly hot. The course comprises of a mile straight, a short loop of 4.5 miles, a long loop of 6.5 miles, and finishing running back down the mile straight.

The first two miles were mainly uphill and I took this reasonably steady. Quite a few people started too far forward and I also spent much of this early period weaving in between slower runners. I did not notice the first mile marker – too busy watching where I was going.
2 miles in 16:07

The first drinks point was at just after two miles. I took on some water and managed not to flatten the person who stopped right in front of me. There was then a nice bit of downhill, which allowed me to extend the legs a bit. The fourth and fifth miles were then reasonably flat, but my calf muscles still felt tight. The drinks point at 4.5 miles was giving out Lucozade, as well as water, but I still had plenty of my own drink left so I did not take any. At around this point the field had spread out enough that you could easily run at your own pace.
3 7:40
4 7:49
5 7:46

Finally, at around 5.5 miles when we were going back past the start/finish mile, my legs finally started to loosen up. The next five miles, including some sharp hills, flew past. I finished my sports drink at around six miles and ate my jelly babies after eight miles – mmm jelly babies.
The drinks points at 6.5 and 9 miles went by. From the second I got some Lucozade – more energy.
6 7:52
7 7:38
8 7:24
9 7:57
10 7:52

Then came a bad mile. The continual undulating nature of the course were really noticeable in the legs by now and I had to slow down for a while. I kept running, as I know a good time is still possible.
11 8:19

More Lucozade at 11 miles and I managed to pick the pace back up again. On turning into the last mile I started to pick the pace up even further. The last mile just seemed to keep going, with the finish never getting any closer. Eventually the finish does arrive and a decent sprint over the line.
12 7:53
13 7:19
.1 0:36

1:42:10 – a PB by nearly six minutes! I am really pleased with this – especially as the legs did not feel good.

A while back Ronan, the friend who has also done the same three half marathons as me this year, pointed out that I did not mention him on this blog and suggested that was because he kept beating me. Well now I have beaten him.