Good to be able to report a decent run with an under 45 minutes 10k the weekend before last : Better to come home to a bronze medal in the post. Not bad as an M65 to earn this in the M60 category.
But couldn’t get in !! In fact the photos were as close as I could get, showing how tight security was.
And it was a tiring and tricky run along the Regents Canal Towpath from Camden Lock – too many people, manic cyclists, slow cyclist as well idiots like me trying to run. It was my first run out this far east on this route – nice route shame about the other people on it !
and ended with the ‘ackney ‘arf, which our daughter Sarah also ran. It was supposed to be a cool cloudy day but was actually quite warm, mostly sunny and quite windy especially towards the end, & after on the walk to Sodo Pizza Cafe in Lower Clapton Road, where we had an excellent post-race lunch (and beer !).
I found the course hard work with lots of ups & downs, nothing serious, but sapping for me, following as it did immediately after doing 3 full marathons in April. All was good until just after half way when I lost touch with the 1h 40m pacers but managed to keep ticking over to finish in around 1h 44m, disappointing but an age grading of 71.6% isn’t too shabby.
Shame that the Olympic Park still looks bare & undeveloped although better than when I previously ran the ‘arf in 2014 when it was horribly hot !
Nothing more until the end of May with the London Vitality 10000 and possibly the Edinburgh Marathon.
Well – Just.
It was a surprisingly difficult race : It wasn’t roastingly hot but certainly not at all comfortable. A positive split sounds good but coaches will say otherwise ! Time was OK – within the London (current) Good for Age time – at 3h 43m.
And so so good to be doing it for the MS Trust.
But just a gentle run over the Heath on lovely but chilly spring morning.
And its been confirmed that last weekend’s Brighton Marathon was 21 degrees !
Apologies for pinching The Sun’s headline ….
Never could this be called ideal marathon running conditions : Although only 15-16 degrees the sun was full-on and St Johns were fully stretched with quite a number of runners in trouble needing their help. Unfortunately stomach cramps enforced a couple of pit stops adding something like 6-7 minutes to my time of 3h 51m which would otherwise have been around 3h 45m, my target for the day.
So a lovely sunny day and not too warm for this run & distinctly chilly at the start; a new one for me. Sadly the course which was fairly flat, didn’t go through the heart of Manchester to show off its history as part of the engine room of Victorian commercial might. Nevertheless its a race that I might do again.
Given the lack of long runs in recent months, I had set a target time of 3h 45m which I was able to better with around 3h 40m, and as a result achieved a position of 8th in my category. Happy with that and on to Brighton next weekend …. train strike permitting.
Yet again The Sussex Beacon, the Brighton Half Marathon organisers, fail to get the course distance right. Too long in 2012 by ~400m and too short by 146m for the last 3 years.
The story even made news headlines on BBC Broadcasts.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/39454135
Beautiful day to be running through London as the flora & fauna begins to wake up into spring. Here’s a view from Regents Canal.
