I made it to the start line of the Stevenage Half Marathon today! Even better..... I made it to the finish line too! 
Due to inconsistent training and my gammy knee I was a bit reticent about having a target, but hankered after a PB – preferably a sub-2 hour to boot. I felt that this was within reach, given that I would have been pushing for a 1:50 a few months ago... c'est la vie. As usual I picked another grotty day for running. The drive to the venue was treacherous in the torrential rain, and it showed no signs of easing up. It was cold and the rain was still heavy at the start of the race. Thankfully I felt comfortable pretty quickly once we got going.
I started farther up the field than I should have, mainly because other runners were slow to make their way to the start line in the crappy weather. There were still slower runners in front of me, but I was able to get into my stride nice and early. After a few miles I realised that I had accidentally triggered my Garmin well before the race and my cumulative time was showing around thirty minutes more than I had actually been running! I didn't let this faze me, as I only had to continue to keep an eye on each mile split to have a good idea how I was doing. If I kept all miles within 9:09 pace, I would go sub 2 hours.
The first couple of miles were a gradual incline and my splits were 8:40 and 8:41. I felt fine and decided to continue around this pace since it felt natural. The course flattened out as it went by the lake during the most pleasant miles, my pace was 8:37, 8:30, 8:44 and 8:40. All timings are direct from the garmin, but they weren't far from actual so I stuck with them since I was up on planned pace anyway. At this time the rain stopped and I began to heat up a bit, but not enough to feel really uncomfortable (I simply unzipped my ultralight jacket a little). I was wearing running tights, and believe these helped to ensure I didn't suffer any cramping of the quads like I had in my other cold races when I wore shorts. My knee grumbled a fair bit after five or six miles, but was forgotten again a few miles later.
I slowed in the middle section shortly after the start of the second lap. Initially this was due to an incline, but I think I fell into the trap of sticking near runners who were slowing down around me. Nonetheless, I kept my worst miles within two-hour pace. The splits were 9:08, 9:06, and 9:06. Back round by the lake I allowed myself to gradually speed up on the declines and flat, comfortably clocking 8:35 and 8:30 through miles ten and eleven. Then going back up the incline to twelve miles I reminded myself how I was able to keep pushing up the inclines at the back end of my training runs. I was happy with 8:55 and able to speed up again for the last mile-and-a-bit.
How much did a sub-2 mean to me? Well here's a list of my half-marathon times since 2009: 2:02:47; 2:04:04; 2:03:55; 2:02:05; 2:02:10; 2:01:34.
It meant a lot!
The finish line clock showed a smidgen over 1:55:00 (five seconds I think). I stopped my garmin on about a gazillionth of a second under 1:55. Too close to call whether it's 1:54:59, so I'll have to wait for the results to see the chip time. It doesn't really matter though. What does matter is a PB by six-and-a-half minutes!!! That's roughly 0.75 miles ahead of my previous best. Get in there!!!
Chuffed to bits. I've broken the hoo-doo at last!
Fingers and toes crossed that my knee doesn't suffer after-effects and I can continue to build from here. My next booking is the Silverstone Half-Marathon, and I would love to go sub 1:50 as a stepping stone to that marathon target. You know, th
