Shakespeare Half Marathon
Aimed for a sub 1 hour 50 mins time – which would put me on track for a sub 4 hour marathon – so aimed for a pace which would bring me in at 1 hour 48…. and this was quite tricky to do given the undulations of the course, but kept an eye on my average pace over the whole race on my Garmin and I must have done very good fast sections to make up for a couple of hills here and there…
It set off out of the hussling crowded Stratford…. it was hard to know exactly where to stand as I only noticed a sign for ‘Fast Runners’ – but no estimated times (unless I missed something!!!)
I couldn’t see Tina, but set out with Pete and it wasn’t far before we almost fell over each other on the side of the pack with the curbsides and various obstacles!! Pete naturally pulled ahead and I was doing my own race. It took a little while to get into a steady rythmn with quite a busy field – but I felt very comfortable and strong. The actual course itself was not very memorable – but I remember a bit of a long hill around mile 7, which I felt strong on and pulled ahead of the less ‘hill happy’, but then a LOVELY strong descent. I kept seeing a Stratford runner lady with yellow vest, she would pull ahead of me – then I would try and do the same. This started before the hill – so was over almost half of the race right up to the end!! We had our own mini-race going on – and I knew the Stratford women had a lot of entrants, so they would be my main competition for our Ladies team result!
The long ‘Greenway’ section was about 2 miles to the FINISH – a long laborious sraight track with nothing but trees lined both sides and a long view of the runners ahead. I got stuck for a while behind a cluster of guys chatting about London(!) so I thought sod this and powered around them thinking if you can chat then you are only doing a tempo pace!! I was amazed to see that my Garmin read my average was 5:06 min/km in the last stretch – so I should come in under my target time of 1 hr 48……and I did as you can see!!!
I will definitely be purchasing one of the sweatshirts with pink arms and Shakespeare sonnet on the back The medal was ace – it was in the shape of a book with more Shakespearian inspired stuff!!
September 6th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Buy:VPXL.Cialis Soft Tabs.Zithromax.Viagra Super Active+.Soma.Viagra Soft Tabs.Propecia.Cialis Professional.Viagra Professional.Cialis.Super Active ED Pack.Viagra Super Force.Cialis Super Active+.Maxaman.Tramadol.Levitra.Viagra….