VLM2016 – Girl Running Crazy

On Sunday I ran the Hampton Court Half Marathon. I always think a half during marathon training gives you a real indication of how it’s going, it lets you know if you’re on track to hit your target, or if you need to re-evaluate your goal. For this reason I was nervous, more nervous than I had been about a race for a while.

In October I ran a 1:50 and a 1:49 half but, according to the McMillan race calculator, I needed to be running 1:42:30 to get a comfortable BQ in the marathon. It felt like a lot to shave off…

It was a pretty early start to get over to Esher for an 8:30am race start but I was pleased to bump into some other Chasers. They operated a wave start system but, rather than using coloured zones and policing it, people could start where they wanted so it wasn’t ideal. It also started late, 16 minutes late to be exact, which was quite frustrating when you’re stood in the cold in just a vest. Apparently there were issues with the park & ride system where they wanted people to pay £6 and get on a bus to the start – I ignored this and parked near the start for free, looks like that was a good idea all round. Definitely room for improvement on the organisational front.

I made the bold decision to start with the 1:40 pacer, or rather hang just behind the 1:40 pacer and see what happened. The plan was to hang onto him for as long as I could, but I didn’t want to let go until at least 7 miles…ideally.

The route was on a lot of pavements along open roads which I think made it difficult for the pacer to keep an even pace, add in weaving around people who had started in the wrong place and I felt like I was all over the place! Every time we sped up I thought I was going to lose him, then we settled down again and it felt comfortable. This went on until around 6.5 miles when he started to disappear as we ran along the river.

Annoyingly I had forgotten to turn the mile alerts back on my watch after my last track session so I didn’t really know how much time I was losing, but I felt like I was plodding. Often during the back half of a race I mentally give up, I allow myself to slow down and tell myself I don’t care about the clock, but that didn’t happen, I just kept pushing as much as I could.

The last mile seemed to drag but eventually the crowds thickened and I crossed the line in 1:44:01…90 seconds off the pace but slightly better than I thought towards the end. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it, I’m still not.

The route itself wasn’t particularly scenic, apart from a small section where we ran past Hampton Court, it was quite dull. It was fast and flat with great PB potential, but it took you on a lot of pavements along open roads which wasn’t ideal, together with the disappointing start I think the only reason I would do it again would be for convenience rather than anything else. That said, you got a great medal and the goody bag was well stocked!

In summary

The Good:

I’m pretty sure Hampton Court was my second fastest half marathon ever
I finished in the top 8% of women
I couldn’t have given it anymore. I honestly never stopped pushing which shows my mental strength is back on track
It was windy in the 2nd half…that may have made me a bit slower…
There are still 9 whole weeks until the London Marathon
My Run Britain handicap is heading in the right direction
I’m not giving up yet and, if all else fails, I’m bang on track for a PB

The Bad:

The splits aren’t great – I fell off the pace and it hurt
I was about 90 seconds away from where I needed to be to be on track for a BQ. That’s actually quite a lot
It’s only 7 weeks until the taper…

The Ugly: