Surrey half

I'm writing about recent runs in reverse order. In early March, I ran in the Surrey Half marathon: Guildford to Woking and back. It was the first time this event had been held and it went very well.

The route starts at the Spectrum Leisure centre, heads north along country lanes to Woking and back again. We met the elite runners on their journey back to the Spectrum when we had reached mile 4! That's a reflection of their speed, not mine...

It was a v hot day, well hot relative to the weather we'd had in the previous months
and there seemed to be a surprising number of injuries, especially in the first few miles. Someone else who ran the route noticed the same. I did my good Samaritan deed for one chap who was sitting by the wayside with a couple of runners with him. They were waving, trying to get the attention of the water station a few hundred metres behind. It was clear that they weren't going to get anyone's attention just by waving so I ran back and reported to a Marshall before heading back in the right direction to a finish line.

The last 3 miles were significantly slower and that, combined with the additional few hundred metres while i ran to get a marshall, meant that this was never going to be my fastest half marathon (that plaudit still goes to the Windsor half in 2003) and was in fact my slowest at 2hr 17. This may also reflect the fact that my average pace had slowed during training (winter cough didn't help) since then I'm creeping back up again - a sub 1hr 10k is still on the horizon and yet to get a little closer. Something to aim for as part of my half marathon training ready for 5th October...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad