Kipchoge may have broken 2 hours for the marathon but today I broke 2 hours for the half marathon and for me that’s a really big deal.
I reckoned my PB for the half marathon was 2:06 at Blenheim back in 2015 when I was training for the London Marathon. I was thrilled to bits with that one but had never really come close to that time since then and even floated out to about 2:25 on occasions. Checking back, I see that it was actually 2:09 at Blenheim so my hopes of getting down to 2 hours seemed to be more than a little unlikely.
The conditions, however were absolutely perfect. It was around 5 degrees Celsius with only a very gentle breeze. I had also achieved 2 PBs this year at 5k and 10k so I was hoping I might get somewhere near this one.
Carrie is here to support me and has asked me what time will do. I say that I am hoping for around 2:06.
I set off with the usual aches and pains. Every joint felt stiff and uncooperative. My breathing was ragged and erratic and I wasn’t enjoying myself at all. Add to this a steady ascent for the first few miles and any dreams I may have had about personal best times seemed at best a pipedream (Sidenote – I was intrigued by the phrase, a pipe dream and it seems to have originated from opium dens. These are the kind of dreams an opium smoker might experience, based on intoxication and signifying nothing).
It was a struggle all the way to around 10k and then suddenly everything seemed to get a little easier.
I was flowing smoothly. There were some downhill sections and I was scurrying down them feeling the benefit of gravity as it shoved me onward.
There were uphill sections and they were tough and scary but I attacked them anyway trying to convince myself that they were good for me.
I reached 11k and took a look at my watch. There was 10k to go and if I continued at my current speed then I would be finishing the run in less than 2 hours.
Obviously that wasn’t going to happen but I figured if I could keep going I might get somewhere near.
The next couple of kilometres passed remarkably quickly and I still felt happy and good to go. I must try to retain this. Somehow hold the mind steady so it doesn’t destroy its own resolve. It is all too easy to let those doubts in, and once they are there they will cut cut loose to slash away at your sense of self worth and your feeble, half-arsed motivations.
I am now up to 15 kilometres and still passing other runners. I don’t know what is happening here but the self doubt has not yet found its way to my legs and the pace has remained pretty constant. If I can hold on to 16k then there are only 5km left. That’s a parkrun that is. I do them every week.
This is a great course. It’s all road, which is a bit of a shame. I have grown to love trail running, but if you’re looking for a personal best time over the distance then tarmac is what you want. I had checked out the course map and figured this out beforehand so I have my Altra Escalante road shoes on my feet, to do the miles.
I do love my Altra shoes.
The kilometres fall away and my pace hasn’t yet collapsed into the steaming pile of poo that I had expected.
How can this be?
We pass through Abbotsley for the last time and the marshall tells us that there is no more ascent, It’s either flat or downhill from here on in.
Checking my watch I see now that it is more than possible. I still feel fit and strong and the finish line is flat or downhill and within comparatively easy reach. 2 hours – you will be mine.
There is only 1 kilometre to go and I am neck and neck with a woman supported by two men. They are telling her she can do it. They are telling her that she needs to run harder than she has ever run in her life. Do you think that this would be useful? Can you imagine someone trying to motivate you by saying that you must do something that hurts more than anything you’ve ever attempted. Would this help?
I’m not sure that it would of benefit to me but we’re all different.
I should maybe do a little aside to say why two hours seemed so important to me.
It is really for an incredibly crap reason and I hope no-one else is so gullible, foolish and ridiculous as I.
We were doing the Cambridge Half Marathon and a friend of ours mentioned that she had to do it in less than 2 hours as you weren’t a ‘real runner’ if it took more than that. Now, she wasn’t being malicious or unpleasant. She was trying to motivate herself to do better. Unfortunately it hit me quite hard and I did feel somewhat inadequate. I know it is ridiculous and silly. I know that everyone who runs more than a few steps is a ‘real runner’ because they have actually got out there and done some running. However, I still let this comment get to me and I really shouldn’t have done. I do hope you folks out there reading this are much less impressionable than I and won’t be affected by other people’s motivations. We are all different and all need different things to spur us on.
However, I was affected by this comment and made it a personal goal to break 2 hours for the half marathon.
I ran up to the line and the gun time showed 1:59 and some seconds. My chip time was 1:57:15. That is more than a 10 minute improvement on my previous half marathon time.
What has made the difference?
It would be nice to say that it’s the new shoes (Altra zero drop shoes) but more likely it is the extended period of training with no injuries and also losing a fairly significant amount of weight. Hopefully I can continue in the same vein and get a new marathon PB next year at the Brighton Marathon.
My running friend Richard also got a PB at this race. It seemed that the conditions were just right for everyone to produce the best that they could do.
Richard finishing St Neots half marathon
Jim finishing St Neots half marathon
This was a good day