I was drawn to the Reading Half Marathon, which is described as the fastest half in Britain. I thought I was as fit as I'd ever been - and all I needed wa a fast, flat course to shave a minute or two off my 1h46m PB.
Reading is a great 'party' race. There is a stadium finish, flat roads, cheerleaders and DJs pumping out dance music at the start. Not usually my cup of tea, but I was happy to endure the queues, crowds, and part with an eye-watering entry fee of £37, in exchange for a shiny new PB.
Unfortunately, I wasn't successful.
After a typically manic pre-race journey which culminated in an exciting 30-minute queue for the toilet, I dropped my bag off at the baggage tent and legged it to the start line. I quickly realised I'd forgotten to grab my water bottle and banana, which made it about 3 hours since I'd eaten or drunk anything before the race started. I had one gel in my pocket, which I had to ration out for the whole race.
The race gradually got under way. I was in the 'blue' wave (aren't all waves blue?) which meant I was expected to finish between 1.45 and 1.55. Everyone was apparently having trouble running their ideal pace at the start. A lot of slower runners had been put into the 'gold' wave this year which started ahead of everyone. I'm not sure why they did it, but it made for a lot of slowing down and dodging in the early miles.
Mile 2's water table rolled round, and I missed it. I was running on the wrong side of the road, so I didn't get any water. "Drat," I thought, and I moved to the left hand side of the road for the next water table. Mile 3's water table was on the other side of the road. I missed it again. I was so thirsty that all I could do was laugh a very dry laugh and continue running in the middle of the road and hope for the next table. The next water table was at mile 5, and I was finally successful there. I dunked water over my head as I tried to cool down.
The day had turned out to be surprisingly warm. I was ready for 5 degree weather, but in the sunshine, it felt like 25. I would later realise I managed to obtain a very fetching sunburn.
I needed to hang on to 5 minute kilometers to get my PB. I'd managed the first few in sub-5, but as I approached the middle kilometers of the race, I found it harder and harder to maintain the pace without going too hard. A few surprise hills was all it took to knock the wind out of my sails. A few slow kilometers effectively killed my chances of a PB there and then.
I thought I was fitter than I am. "Consistency is key" is what they say, and although my training has been going well since my awful Thames Trot 50 attempt, I can now see that there's still an awful lot of work to do if I ever want to break my half marathon PB again.
Going into this summer, I've got a marathon, a 50 mile, and a 100 mile race. If I'm not the fittest I've ever been by a long way for those races, I'll end up crawling over the marathon finish line, and DNFing the rest.
But I'm motivated, and with the clocks going back this week, I'm excited about training in daylight every day of the week. I'm not where I need to be to finish the NDW100, but I think I can get there.
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My finish time for Reading was 1h50m59s - 6 minutes slower than what I hoped for. Strava info: https://www.strava.com/activities/272477303
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