Three in fifteen

I have been busy over the past four weekends cramming running races into my schedule. Following on from my fourth place at the Running Show 10k in 33.31 minutes I wanted to achieve a time of sub 75 minutes for a Half Marathon. This had been an aim of mine since 2010 when I ran a 77 minute Half Marathon in Cardiff.

My first half marathon was the following weekend at Milton Keynes where I met up with Swansea uni friend Gareth Petts. It was cold with snow flurries but at least it was dry! I settled into a nice steady pace over the first three miles of around 5.35 minute miles. This eventually caught me up to a group of four (who had gone off too fast). Annoyingly, the ten km start had not been far enough in advance of us so before they turned off our course we found ourselves running for around a mile dodging between runners. It made it interesting! At half-way I knew I was on for roughly 74 minutes and, maintaining that pace, another runner and I broke clear of the other three. Due to a sharp short climb near the finish my finishing time was 74.29 minutes although a strong push up that hill resulted in a sixth place finish. I was really pleased with the finishing time but knew that there was more in the tank…

A late email to the organisers of Reading Half Marathon resulted in my lining up with the elites at the front of 16,000 runners the following weekend. It was very wet and for the second weekend in a row I started the run very cold. I was confident in my running from the previous weekend and wanted to hold 5.30 minute miles in order to smash my personal best again. I started the race very steadily again having been told that the only climb on the course was from miles two to three. I caught the leading woman at this stage, a tiny Kenyan woman with an awful foot strike. It was annoying to see how fast she could carry herself with such a bad technique. I felt quite happy running next to her, demonstrating my forefoot running style and appreciating the shouts of ‘go on leading lady!’ At around mile six I started worrying that a second half marathon in eight days was too much as my legs started aching. I let the Kenyan lady go ahead whilst trying to keep within twenty seconds of her. Despite my tiring legs I surprised to look at my watch and see that I was maintaining 5.29 minute miles! At mile nine I passed two runners as another runner caught me. I stuck with him, knowing that if I could get within sight of the Madjeski Stadium and still be there that I would be okay. Running into the stadium there were at least 5,000 people in the stands. My little sprint finish brought me within five seconds of the Kenyan lady and brought with it a finishing time of 72 minutes 29 seconds. I was happy!

To top things off I was entered for Leith Hill Half Marathon one week later to make it three in fifteen days. By now I was full of confidence in my running and the Thursday night hill reps I have been doing with Herne Hill Harriers meant that I was looking forward to attacking the 2,000 feet of climbing up to the top of the highest point in SE England. I cycled the 25 miles from Clapham to Dorking to warm up and surprise, surprise, it was snowing again! This made the off-road course icy and wet but it is what I love running in and I was in my element. The field was slightly smaller than at Reading- around 350- and I wanted to have a go at the course record which a Spaniard was holding from 2010. Within 200 metres I was leading and by mile one I knew I was alone. I didn’t turn my head around once on the way up the hill as I broke the ice in a couple of deep puddles. I felt no tiredness from the previous two weekends and was feeling great. There was a crowd at the top of the climb that kept me working hard up the final steep and slippy path. I made the turn and started heading back down and realised I had a two minute lead! I passed the rest of the field going the other way, taking on words of encouragement and trying to return the gesture. A couple of gents shouted at me to go for the record but I was already going for it! I scrambled over the three hay bails at the finish and saw on my watch 82 minutes. This broke the course record by two minutes and won me the race by four minutes. It was a fantastic race and I could see why it was voted ‘Runners World Half Marathon of the year’. I cycled home again very happy, with the bottle of champagne safely wedged into my bottle rack.

Although running has dominated my recent races I have been working on my technique for cycling and swimming with quite a bit of work on the turbo. In April I am hoping to race a fast 10k, the elite duathlon champs, the National 12 stage Relays (with a strong Swansea Harriers team) and I am pacing at the London Marathon. I will then be heading off to Villamoura on the hopefully sunny Algarve to join my race team at Tri Training Harder. I really cannot wait to get out there and get some decent sea swimming in and some long cycles. This camp will finish with an Olympic Distance race at Lisbon.

Triathlons, the Ras De Cymru and Rat Race Dirty Weekend are all planned in May and June in the build up to Zurich in July