English
Horses for Courses
This weekend took on horsey theme with the Grand National on Saturday and the Paddock Wood Half Marathon on Sunday.
Having had the joy and surprise of seeing my £2.50 each way bet on Mon Mome come in at 136-1, Sunday was always going to be a good day.
Our running group has grown over time and for the first time we needed to take 2 cars to accommodate everyone. I was taking part in the half marathon and hoping for a sub 1:30. Alfie (front, whinnying) was running the 2k fun run along with mum (front left) and 2 friends, Ryan (rear left) and Chris (rear centre).
As we gathered at the post for the start of the fun run I smiled as Alfie jostled to get near the front of the pack. There were no problems with the tape and Chris and Ryan took off like a pair of thoroughbreds with Alfie trying his utmost to keep up with them. I tried in vain to rein him in but in any case, he tired after a few furlongs and then settled in to a more comfortable pace. We had a good canter around with Alfie pipping me at the post for a 12:19 watch time finish; there was no official time or placing for the fun run.
The half marathon commenced 30 minutes or so later. It was starting to warm up a little and I took on extra fluids to counteract the effects of the sun. The course started out pretty bleakly around the trading estates of Paddock Wood however we broke free of this after a mile or so and what followed was an 11 mile canter through beautiful unspoilt Kent countryside.
A few miles in I realised I had forgotten to start my stopwatch. Rather than get frantic about it as I normally would, I thought it would be a good opportunity to run at what I thought was my target pace. I was feeling pretty comfortable and at the half way point a very helpful course Marshall yelled out to me that I was there in 44:42, so bang on schedule.
Around mile 10 I was passed by a fellow Cambridge Harrier, Alex Hall. I know Alex has a marathon time of around 3:08 so his presence spurred me on and I picked up the pace a little to keep up with him. After a mile or so of tailing Alex I reluctantly watched him push on. Alex ended up finishing in 1:29:59, not bad pacing for a sub 1:30 run.
I was managing to pick off a few runners myself in the final stages and was surprised to see another Harrier, Graham Maynard just ahead. Graham heads up our road running team and has his P.B over the distance on this very course at 1:22:18. Something was obviously not quire right and on enquiring, I was stunned to learn that he was suffering from a dislocated shoulder, having come a cropper tripping over a stray pooch on a training run the previous week. Inspired by his efforts, I pushed on to finish in 1:32:00 a little off target pace but a satisfying run nevertheless. Graham finished just 24 seconds behind. With a marathon P.B of 3:04, I sincerely hope he has sufficient time to recover in time for the London Marathon in a few weeks time.
I am starting my taper for the London marathon this week. I learned a few years back that it’s important to adjust the calorific intake accordingly and so will be cutting down on the choccie bars as well as the mileage. To keep up my interest as one goal approaches, I also booked up a few runs for later on in the year, including the ING Marathon on May 23rd, the London to Brighton Ultra on September 20th and the Pembrokeshire Coast 3 day ultra on November 6th. So many runs and so little time to do them…