Stafford Half Marathon 2016
March 20th 2016
Half Marathon
A week's skiing, snowboarding, eating and drinking (the latter two very well, the first two not so well) do not make for great half marathon preparation. Add a weekend of flu into that and that is how I arrived at Stafford Half.
Luckily most of the flue symptoms had gone away by the time I came to the race, but I still couldn't run more than a few hundred metres without my chest letting me know it was present and struggling.
I therefore entered the start funnel feeling understandably pessimistic, and placed myself just behind the "2 hours" mark, thinking "maybe, if I'm lucky!". I set off at the average pace from my last half, rapidly overtaking a large number of people.
Until about 5 miles in, I felt surprisingly OK. The little out and back around a housing estate (the one switchback on the course) had not been as long as expected, and I managed a little wave to Jenny, a friend who was also running. Then came the hill. Not long, nor normally taxing, but for me this was the end of any aspect of enjoyment to this race.
6 miles in and I was struggling to keep the legs going - thoughts of stopping regularly visited my mind and my ears were listening to me clearing my throat, coughing and generally trying to breathe with some sort of efficiency. For what was advertised as a "fast, flat course" where " most people PB" I was noticing every slight incline, and the long drag up and around the bypass to the 10 mile mark had me bypassing no-one, and a lot of people passing me!
At this point the pain in my legs started equating to that in my chest, and any remaining mental strength dissolved into thoughts like "Will this ever end?" and "Why am I here?". Never having posted a DNF, I was not going to make this the first time, and gave myself intermediate time goals to get through to the end. My sole aim by 11.5 miles was to get my split under 9 minutes....
Crossing the finish line was agony, and my Garmin OCD required me to run on for another 0.03 miles to register as a half marathon. My split sneaked under 9 to an unsatisfying 08:59 finish.
Reflecting upon this race, I shouldn't have run. Lessons learned include being able to monitor fitness by recovery. After a comfortable and fast Cambridge Half marathon, I felt extremely energised, doing the equivalent of a full sprint triathlon on the Monday afterwards and not needing a break in training at all. After Stafford I needed almost another whole week off to recover from the race alone, and it was a fortnight until my chest recovered to almost normal. Never again! (she says)
Times
Total time: 01:57:23
Standings
FSenior 90/ 360 25%
Female 275/ 992 28%
Overall 1504/2742 44%
Half Marathon
 |
| Painful finish! ((C)Mich Hall) |
Luckily most of the flue symptoms had gone away by the time I came to the race, but I still couldn't run more than a few hundred metres without my chest letting me know it was present and struggling.
I therefore entered the start funnel feeling understandably pessimistic, and placed myself just behind the "2 hours" mark, thinking "maybe, if I'm lucky!". I set off at the average pace from my last half, rapidly overtaking a large number of people.
Until about 5 miles in, I felt surprisingly OK. The little out and back around a housing estate (the one switchback on the course) had not been as long as expected, and I managed a little wave to Jenny, a friend who was also running. Then came the hill. Not long, nor normally taxing, but for me this was the end of any aspect of enjoyment to this race.
 |
| My self and Jenny |
At this point the pain in my legs started equating to that in my chest, and any remaining mental strength dissolved into thoughts like "Will this ever end?" and "Why am I here?". Never having posted a DNF, I was not going to make this the first time, and gave myself intermediate time goals to get through to the end. My sole aim by 11.5 miles was to get my split under 9 minutes....
Crossing the finish line was agony, and my Garmin OCD required me to run on for another 0.03 miles to register as a half marathon. My split sneaked under 9 to an unsatisfying 08:59 finish.
Reflecting upon this race, I shouldn't have run. Lessons learned include being able to monitor fitness by recovery. After a comfortable and fast Cambridge Half marathon, I felt extremely energised, doing the equivalent of a full sprint triathlon on the Monday afterwards and not needing a break in training at all. After Stafford I needed almost another whole week off to recover from the race alone, and it was a fortnight until my chest recovered to almost normal. Never again! (she says)
Times
Total time: 01:57:23
Standings
FSenior 90/ 360 25%
Female 275/ 992 28%
Overall 1504/2742 44%
Comments
Post a Comment