I have a semi-serious aim this year to do at least one race every month. Not only is this the March entry in that challenge, it's also my 'A' race of the year and I trained very hard for it.I've been doing track sessions on Monday evenings to give me more speed, medium runs on Wednesday evenings with the club, and long runs of up to 15 miles at the weekend. I've never had this much preparation for a long run and though I was nervous, I did feel ready to tackle my 1:30 target time. I needed to take over four minutes off my Windsor HM personal best time. Reading is supposed to be a faster course, and I am fitter, so it should be doable.
There was a huge turnout from the Evolution club. I walked down to the club to meet and we set off in a car convoy. We parked in Jo's works car park which was convenient - and were in plenty of time to make toilet stops and get to the start line for 10:05am
With my new Garmin 205 GPS on my wrist, and the sun creeping out from behind the thin cloud, we were off.
I didn't really know how to work the watch, but had average speed prominently set. I only managed the first mile in 8 minutes. This was due to congestion and once I realised my time and the crowds thinned a little I pushed through harder. I was assuming something around a 6:55 minute mile would get my target. and even though I'd studied charts, forgot quite how small the increments were.
6:40 1:27:24
6:50 1:29:35
7:00 1:31:46
7:10 1:33:57
7:20 1:36:08
6:55 wasn't going to do it.
However, I kept running and checking my average pace and it kept going down. By about 15k I think it was down around 6:50 and I was happy - I was even thinking I was going to smash 1:30 and relaxed a little. I did actually speed up some, but should have tried even harder. I missed a lot of mile/km markers somehow so never really know where I was, and I couldn't press any buttons on the watch as I didn't know if I'd be able to get it back to the correct setting again. So I kept going. At the final kilometer mark I felt my first pain of the day - my inner thigh. It didn't slow me much, and then I was entering the football stadium and all there was to do was sprint to the finish.
Really hoping I would have beaten 1:30, I had a worried few minutes until I eventually pressed some buttons and got my answer 1:29:28 - I'd done it (official time 1:29:24). I was a little shocked at how close to 1:30 it was - I could easily have missed it when I'd even mistakenly thought I was in the 1:27 region. Note to self - prepare target speeds better.
1351 Robert Shiels M 45 01:31:51 627 01:29:24
