Feeling optimistic

This weekend I'll be running the Bacchus marathon, a totally fun event and I won't be looking at my garmin.  This time last year I was upset about not being able to do my autumn marathon because of family commitments.  When I was off work sick, I managed to enter 3 marathons in the space of a week, and then got my place for London marathon confirmed a week later, which has had the effect of this wonderful year of running where I have already completed 4 marathons, and 43 miles of running at thunder run.

However, this blog was started because of my goal to qualify for Boston marathon, which requies me to run a full marathon in 3:35 or faster.  When I spoke to a running coach about how I would get there my pbs for 5k/10k/half/full were 24/52/1:59/4:33.  He said it was possible but would require work, and to be in with a chance of going for a 3:35 marathon, I needed to have a 22 minute 5k, a 46 minute 10k, and a 1:38 half.

I haven't raced a half since this years spring marathon training, where I got a pb of 1:43, but my 5k and 10k times are now 21 and 44 minutes respectively.  With over 6 months to go until London marathon when I get to run from the good for age start, I'm feeling very optimistic that I'm going to meet my goal, and indeed exceed it.

Vo2 max monitors on my garmin suggest a 3:15 marathon is achievable.  Last year I turned my September half marathon pace into my April marathon pace.  I'm sure I can do that again, but as always will exercise the caution necessary for winter training.  With no races planned after my ultra in October, I can really start building the base now, and clocking into marathon pace.  I certainly remember 8:30 feeling tough this time last year, but now it's my easy run pace, so marathon pace of 7:30; it seems scary now, but I'm going to go for it.  As always the pace for race day will come from how well I've trained, but training toward a 3:15 will certainly build me up well to get that BQ and be on the start line in Boston in 2016

One step away from being an elite athlete (Langham 10k report)

Langham 10k, 

-only signed up for it about 10 days before, but we really lack them around here, and its not a distance I would travel to race particularly.  This is the last one of the year that I am available to do, and I wanted to get a clean sweep of pbs before setting my sights on an even loftier marathon goal.  

According to my race predictor on my garmin, I ought to be doing a 10k in 43 something, but I am yet to run a sub 45 10k, so thought I would pace for that, needing to stick below 7:15 pace until halfway, and then see what I could do.

I started a bit too far back, and whilst the race was chip timed, it didn’t have a starting mat, only a finish mat, so I lost time getting over the start, and then battling through people, and getting stuck behind people who were running 2 or 3 abreast-  this was a road race, and the only road closure was the start area for about 7 minutes.  The country lanes were narrow in places, and clearly you wouldn’t want to face oncoming traffic.  Despite a lengthy warm up though, by 1km, my garmin was still saying 7:35 pace.  I didn’t want to over-egg it to catch the time up, but I did start thinking about picking up leg speed, and being a bit more aggressive to find my space.  This eventually worked, and I managed to pick up one of my running club friends Chris, in the process.  We crossed 1 mile in 7:08.  He passed one of his friends who was going for sub-50, Chris said so was he, and I politely informed him that we were on more like 45 minute pace.  It was good to have the company, but I know what I’m like in 10ks, I didn’t want to lose time here when I should be feeling strong and fresh.  I pushed on and Chris came with me, which was great.  It really helped spur me on when my legs were still feeling sluggish.  Second mile in 7:07 – ok, this was nice even pacing, and definitely on track for a sub-45, assuming that the course was accurately measured and there were no surprises (hills).  But when the next mile clicked over and I looked at my garmin again, I was on 6:40 pace, I reacted too quickly and it went to 7:30, and then I thought, clearly miles 1 and 2 were controlled enough, plus you’ve done some bloody long runs recently, lets just risk it, and start the push here.  

Chris stayed with me, but I lost him about half way, more from having the energy to dart around people than anything else.  He’s a very strong runner, and I was sure he wasn’t far behind me, but I daren’t look back, and lose my mojo.  As I passed the first water stop at 4.5k I reflected on how I used to stop for water in a 10k, but know that as long as I’m well hydrated to start the race, it isn’t really necessary.  I would allow myself to stop at the 7.5k one, if really needed.  Mile 3 complete in 7:02; I had sped up, but not as much as I thought, but my legs felt strong, and didn’t have that searing pain they usually have at the halfway point of a 10k.  Now was the time to push and start chasing people- at some point I was sure I would have my usual 3^rd quarter of the race lull, so I was trying to stay strong, but it never came... mile 4 was 6:57.  Aha, there was a reason, it was going to come in mile 5.  I was really starting to catch people here, who were capable of the times they were running, but had gone out hard from the start so were keeping even, or perhaps slightly slowing.  I could see 4 ladies all running very close together and this was my motivation.  I knew I would be quite high amongst female finishers anyway, but the opportunity to pass 4 of them at this pace could potentially put me in with a chance of getting a prize, depending on who else had showed up to run today. I focussed on them, and by the end of the 5^th mile (7:04) had passed them all, and they didn’t give any fight.

There were very few people in front and I was starting to hurt, though it was my breathing, not my legs... this was nothing compared to the 40kg deadlifts I had done  on Tuesday, clearly J.

During the first part of the last mile, I caught up with a guy wearing a Colchester half marathon t-shirt (what an uncomfortable thing to run it as its cotton, not technical).  I passed him on the inside and my pace was pretty quick – 6:30ish.  I couldn’t keep it up though, and he did give fight, which meant I had annoying heavy breathing in my right ear.  I’m not sure if he sped up, or I slowed to get that sound out of my head, but he got away.  There was barely anyone in my sights, and no women, it wasn’t far to go now, and I completed the 6^th mile in 6:51.  Clearly I had started the second half push too early, but was back now, and had some people to chase, even if they beat me over the finish.  I really don’t have much of a kick; that said I always seem to pass men in the last 400m of a race, who then out kick me in the last 50m, and you always wonder were they just holding back the last 9.5km.  Anyway, I crossed the finish line with a watch time of 43:56.  I didn’t place, but must have been close to placing as the commentator said he’d lost count but clearly I was high up.  When I checked the results later, my official time was 44:06, and I was 5^th lady.  Whilst pleased with a pb, I’m not sure it was the best race.  A well run 10k shouldn’t have 18seconds variation in mile split times!!  

It shows that despite improvements to my overall fitness due to running long and slow in preparation for the ultra, it takes me a really long time to warm up to top speed, as shown by the big negative split.

My garmin has told me I ran a 5k in 21:33 during that race, and very interestingly, my cadence was 179.  They say elites run at 180, so I guess I’m one step away.  ;-)

One of the best long runs ever

Been a long time since writing again but this is a run worth writing about.  I suspect it will be a long one so get your cup of tea ready.

I'm doing a 75 mile ultra marathon and had been getting increasingly worried having maintained relatively high mileage but rarely in contnuous runs.  I did a 23 miler with Sarah in York last weekend and the pace was a bit too fast for me, especially in new road shoes- one of my adductors seemed quite inflamed and my clients were noticing my limp most of the week, nonetheless, Friday is my rest day, so I figured 24 hours would cure it ready for the 30 miles I had planned on Saturday.  I was to run with Rob and Lorraine, the duo who currently hold the world record for the fastest 5k dressed as a pantomime camel.  When they aren't wearing their camel costumes, their marathon times are fairly similar to mine, so they are ideal companions for a long run.  Plus they are always doing ultra runs just for the heck of it.  This would have been my longest run ever though, and I already had my excuses in for bailing early.

I awoke at 6, and was almost as excited as I am before a marathon, however, it was noticeably cooler so I decided to prepare my breakfast and tea to have in bed.  Poor David, I was chomping away as he was trying to sleep.

Lorraine and Rob were getting to mine for 8am and David was going to drive us the 2 miles up the road tothe Essex way in West Bergholt- we were like children at Christmas messaging each other via Facebook about our long run preparations.  I had made Florentines and Ginger cake for run fuel, and Lorraine was bringing me some crisps to replace my salts- we all know I'm a very salty sweater.

After usual run preparations I was ready, and surprisingly for me, I was ready 10 minutes earlier than I needed to be!  And they were stuck in traffic- such is the state of Colchester's roads that 8am on a Saturday morning does not guarantee you an easy journey!  Shortly they arrived and David dropped us at armoury road where the Essex way passes some paddocks.  Already the jokes started, and we were talking to the sheep and cows.

The first 6 miles flew by.  I've run this section several times on my own, with @mia79gbr, part in reverse on the stour valley marathon.  I knew what to expect and remembered the turnings that were a bit difficult to find.  We were all using this run as ultra training, so we were sensible to take breaks like checkpoints, other than an apple orchard, which Rob took an apple from and bypassing the vinyard, there wasn't much particular of note on this section, although the following day when I ran the same section with David, we saw a muntjac (spelling from the British deer society) deer running away from the orchard.

After a long down hill on a stoney track, Lorraine and I spotted a beautiful lake and we decided to have our little picnic there- rob and I had Florentines, and Lorraine had some ginger cake.  After a brief stop we were on our way again- I was still confident of the route and remembered parts where there was an angry dog... The land owner happened to be on his driveway at this point, and warned us not to run on the footpath- none of us could tell whether this was a joke or not, so we just carried on running, on the basis that he probably couldn't catch us.  Shortly after this we got a little bit lost- we hadn't been using the route instructions and had been relying on my memory, which clearly wasn't all there since the last time I had ran this part was in the dark in December last year... Luckily Lorraine had a map, and rob at a fancy gps device so we found our way back onto the Essex way, up a steep hill up to langham church.  Before a steep descent into Dedham.

In Dedham we stopped to get some drinks- I had some ribena, and had the whole bottle- I seem to do quite well running on ribena, I discovered last week on the run with Sarah.

Then we continued on our way.  I was less certain of this part of the route, but the waymarks were much clearer- there were also fewer feasible alternatives, nonetheless, I was clutching onto my route instructions to keep up with them and avoid us getting lost again.  This section featured many kissing gates and we worked out we could save time if we all bundled into the gates together, so the gate only had to kiss once, rather than 3 times to let us all through.  This section was leg 8 of the Essex way relay, 8 miles from Dedham to Bradfield.  We transitioned from the undulating vistas of constable country to the Stour's edge.  Along the way we had another stop in Mistley, and managed to get a picture by the towers.  It turns out there are as many versions of history as there are people who want to tell it.  I read on the plaque by the towers the last time I was there that they were all that remained from a church that was there originally.  Lorraine said they were there because someone wanted to turn Mistley into a spa town, but then run out of money, nonetheless, a food stop and photo op is all that's really important ;-).  Although the gravestones surrounding suggest it probably was a church.

We continued having impressed some people with how far we had run already, 'wow you're running all the way to Harwich'. This was approximately 17 miles in, and I have to say my legs felt great- doing all these marathons lately has had the desired effect which is that it doesn't seem an insurmountable distance to exceed.

We passed through the edme factory and back onto beautiful fields and beautiful vistas- we met many walkers on this section, and one particular couple who helped stop us taking a wrong turn- I was adament we went thru the gate, and I remember now that the instructions had confused me last time at this point too- because that time I did go through the gate and had to retrace my steps.  Both rob's device and the walking couple with their map said not to go through the gate, and they were right.  What followed was a nice long run through the woods.  Again the miles started to tick away and we were chatting away and singing tunes from classic fm and moulin rouge.  Lorraine and I both learnt the hard way that signing whilst running uphill was not a good idea :-)

It wasn't long until we were in Bradfield and I had to turn the page for stage 9- Bradfield to Ramsey.  This section was good as it took us over 20 miles but also ended at a pub I wanted to stop in.  We found it easy to stay in our stride here, and we were still having lots of fun.  Rob and Lorraine stopped to try a rope swing, and then Lorraine and I tried some cage dancing.

It wasn't a kissing gate, honest!! :)

We also passed through wrabness- this was one of the most interesting parts of the run- by the river was long grass, which Lorraine thought looked like wooly mammoth fur, and I have to agree.

We passed the church, and here is where local history was rather lacking- we saw a bell in a bell cage on the church yard and suspected it had originally been on a tower that had collapsed.  We saw a local pull up to the church and asked him about it.  He told us that the church extension had been built in 1911 and that the bell had always been in the yard (yeah right). A later check of Wikipedia gave a more likely story.

Back down to the riverside and now up on the sea wall, in the distance we could see this Gaudi-esque house.  I didn't remember seeing it before and put it down to how tired I was the last time I ran this section, although now, checking it out, I see that it probably just wasn't visible yet.  A house for Essex: 

http://www.living-architecture.co.uk/the-houses/a-house-for-essex/overview/ 

It really was a spectacle, and certainly helped the miles pass.  Somewhere around 23 miles we were starting to tire but a quick look at the instructions showed we were just a few hundred metres away form the pub.  I insisted we all had cider, since my next marathon is on a vinyard and so I will be running whilst drinking wine.  I was really looking forward to an aspalls, but unfortunately their aspalls on draught was flat, and so instead we had kopperberg from a bottle.  The landlord was so friendly, and offered to fill our ultra vests up with water- seemed adept at catering to runners, and I suspect that if you lived around Ramsey you would probably always run on the Essex way.  So onto the cider, usually I hate this kopperberg stuff as it is just so sweet, but funnily enough after running 24 miles, it really hit the spot.  It was just right, and just enough given we had another 5 miles to go.

Getting started after this stop was tougher than all the others, and I'm sure it's because of the alcohol- I was definitely feeling hotter than I had any of the previous 24 miles and breathing was a bit harder- a good warning to really pace the drinking at bachus marathon next month.  This last section of the Essex way was, to be honest, a bit boring.  We went though some paddocky type areas but then it was pretty much sea wall, to car park, to 2.5 miles running along the seafront where the Harwich port never seemed to get any closer, that said, I was full of beans having passed the furthest I had EVER run at 27 miles and my legs still felt good.  We reached the old lighthouse at 29.94 on my garmin so of course I had to circle it a few times to tick over 30.

This really was a fab run, stunning scenery, ideal weather, perfect food and hydration along the way, and most of all fabulous company.  Thank you both for joining me on my crazy quest- next summer, we'll do the whole Essex way in a weekend :-) 

How cool is the map on garmin connect?!? We've crossed half the county

Greater Manchester Marathon

This was the 1st of 5 marathons this year in memory of my dad and to raise awareness of Mesothelioma, the disease that took him from us : www.virginmoneygiving.com/angelaisherwood

On Saturday morning, I woke up incredibly excited as I was going to start the weekend celebrating Colchester Castle parkrun's first birthday, and filming 2 of my friends attempting to break the world record running a 5k dressed as a camel.  The previous record was 30 minutes.

(Photo credit: Neil Wray)

They completed it in 25:30

After the fun of the Parkrun birthday, it was a quick turnaround at home before the long drive north and west to Manchester.  During the car ride, as well as falling asleep several times whilst cuddling my elephant, I also remembered this time 2 years ago, and having spent dad's last weekend at home surrounded by family and watching the boat race on what was quite an eventful boat race as a chap jumped in the water, and later the bow man from the Oxford crew collapsed with exhaustion.

We arrived at our hotel around 5:30pm, and so plenty of time to get a decent dinner before watching run fat boy run, my usual pre race prep, however, we spent almost an hour trying to get toa restaurant, as the trams were not in service we couldn't work out the busses and taxis lied about being at our pick up point when we were standing there the whole time.  Eventually we made it into the city centre and were looking for a Jamie's Italian, when we happend upon another Italian restaurant called Avalanche.

Avalanche was amazing, and highly recommend it,  if I'm ever in Manchester again, I will certainly return,  the wine was delicious and reasonably priced, as was the food.  Although the place wasn't cheap, I didn't think we were overpaying because the decor was so nice.  Our bill would easily have been £25-£50 more expensive had this restaurant been in Colchester or London respectively.

Back to the hotel, and an old friend from high school, who now lives in Manchester, met us in the bar, and we had a good old catch up.  Amazing that it's been over 10 years since we've seen each other!  She wished me luck, and we got back to our hotel room just before 10pm.  Having slept in the car, I figured I would still be able to catch some of the film, but got properly ready for bed just in case.  I managed about half of it, before deciding to go to sleep.

I shouldn't have bothered.  I was tossing and turning all night.  Excitement? Nerves? The room turning from sauna temp to ice cold in a matter of seconds?  Who knows.  By the time my alarm went off at 6, I just wanted a nice relaxed getting ready, which I managed.  Didn't even leave the room as I managed to use instant porridge.  Very little appetite though.

I woke David to take a picture of me before I set off for the start:

You can tell from the lack of light coming through it was a fairly grey day.  I was worried about rain, but thankful, as this would be my first marathon run in relatively cool conditions.

At the race village, I bumped into a couple of people I knew, including Jonathon who had been marshalling at the camel WR attempt Parkrun.  He had come up on the train, and was looking forward to a sub 3:30 finish.  We were in start pens B and C, so we walked to the start line together, and separated to go in th pens.  I was nervous right until I had passed 3 miles.  It took me a long time to relax into pace, and I kept having to control myself but also not push too hard for at Least the first half. I was so focused on getting the pacing right, that I barely spoke to anyone.  A few people spoke to me, but in my aim to stay focused, I made sure I dropped back or pushed on so that I could continue to run my own race.

Unfortunately I don't remember that much of the course, but I do remember the following.

At mile 7 @tinyrunner85 ringing her bell and cheering as I went past.

At halfway lots of crowds and cheering, which made me pick up my pace a bit too much!

At mile 16, elite runner June Allen massively cheering me on

At mile 17 @tinyrunner85 again cheering me on

After this I could hear my friend David S who will be running London marathon next week for his 50th birthday reminding me to keep steady at this point even if I felt great.  I felt good, but I wouldn't say great, so I just kept steady.  I did notice the pace starting to drop off but I could pull it back again.  At 18.5 miles I saw David (my fiancé, who is not 50!!!) with the camera, and that gave me another much needed boost.  I held on strong pacing until 20 miles, the real halfway point.

 

I was looking forward to passing Isherwood road at 20.5 miles to give me another boost:

But it didn't quite work like that and I didn't see the sign.

From here, my legs started to complain, I had to tell myself to keep going.  I looked down at my wristband:

If I could hold on to 22, I would be able to finish the last 4 in 10mm and still hit my target, but I had to remind myself that my maths might be off, due to race brain frazzle and that I should just keep it steady.  I would allow myself a little fade in the next few miles, and made a deal that I could relax a bit as long as I didn't stop to walk.  Turns out my relaxing a bit pace was 8:45ish, which made me think that 'holding on' pace may be 9mm... Notwithstanding poor mental arithmetic, I could possibly make 3:40... If I could pick it up, I could have finished 3:38:31, which would have been a whole hour faster than my first marathon.  But I had in mind that I was on the edge of cramping in my left calf and hamstrings and that it could end up painful.  I just kept running.

At 24.5, I allowed a smile to creep in.  As long as the cramp held off, I had this.  I was grinning inside, whilst gritting my teeth.  I'm sure I let out a fair few grunts and groans at this point.  In the last mile I wanted to push on.  This was the mile that above all the others I was dedicating to my dad.  I would fight and fight as he had taught me too.  There was no sprint finish, but I reckoned I could get under 3:42 which is what my pacing plan would have resulted in.  I could see the finish clock at 3:41: something and pushed and pushed to the finish line, when I stopped my garmin, I was overwhelmed and amazed to find I had actually run under 3:40!  Even if London changes the GFA requirements by another 5 minutes as they did last year, I still have it!

I have only now looked at the splits, and am really happy with them:

I will no doubt post more later with a bit more chance to reflect, but wow, 38 minute pb!  I don't feel like anything went wrong.  I had paced intending for a 6 mile drop off of pace in the latter stages but only really had the drop for 4 miles.  I smashed my target by 5 minutes and definitely feel a hellova lot closer to qualifying for Boston.

Thanks to all who have supported, helped and encouraged me along the way.  Knowing that you would be looking at my Facebook wall or Reading this blog to see the result really made me keep going in those final few miles.

Xxx

28 weeks later

So this one is going to be out of chronilogical order.  I still have the Essex 20 and Colchester half marathon to write about, but with 5.5 days left until the Greater Manchester Marathon, I thought it was time for some reflection.

Regular readers of my blog may recall that I started training for this marathon a lot earlier than many marathon plans would suggest.  This seemed more and more apt as my goal time reduced.  The title of the blog is Long road to Boston.  I had figured out that my autumn 2013 marathon would be my first sub 4, and that whichever marathon I did in spring 2014 would be a London good for age time.  When I planned this all out at the start of 2013, the London good for age standard for a girl in her late 20s was a sub 3:50 marathon.  This changed after last years London Marathon to 3:45.  Having missed my autumn marathon due to family commitments, and not finding a suitable one to replace it, I could have used this years spring one to get the sub 4, or go for 3:50 according to my plan, however, with 29 weeks to go, why not aim for a real stretch?  And get that good for age place which would hopefully give me the chance to run my Boston qualifier on the London marathon course.

I followed an amalgam of plans, but what was different about this time, is a lot more strength work.  In the first few weeks, I did my own kettlebels circuits,  over the November/December period I did gym strength work as I was working toward my gym instructor qualification, in January I did insanity, and since, I have been consolidating my running with tune up races.  I feel much much stronger as a result.  I've lost about 5kg since the start of training, give or take 1kg.  Both the strength training and weightloss, together with real dedication to the quality run sessions has translated into 13 minutes off my half marathon pb in less than a year.  It's where it needs to be for my goal of sub 3:45, and indeed many race calculators suggest that half marathon time translates to a 3:37, the app on my phone even has the illusive 3:35!  I started working on a marathon pace of 8:30 in October last year, and I remember it being tough for 2 miles.  Bear in mind, that was my half marathon pace at the time.

This long build up with a final focus really works well for me.  I like the small gains along the way, but the fact they are all pointing me toward a bigger goal is even more exciting for me.

So, 28 weeks later, I feel ready, but I also feel incredibly nervous.  The reality is that a 3:45 marathon would be 33 minutes faster than my marathon pb... That's over half and hour!!!  There is a real risk, as I've always been better at the shorter distances.  However, the positive is that both in the Essex 20 and the Colchester half marathon. I managed to maintain marathon pace where I wanted to.  These are great indicators, but I can never quiet that realism that 7 miles at the end of a 20 miler is a bit different to the whole 26.2

Anyways, I just have to trust in the training, and hope you'll all send me good luck vibes! 

Losing confidence

I drafted this blog a while ago, but never completed it.  Toward the end of February I was suffering from a lack of confidence in my running, largely because the illness that lead me to missing Great Bentley half marathon and rescheduling to do Dorney meant that I was now scheduled to do 3 back to back 20 milers, something I had never done before.  I decided to spread them out so there were 10 days between the first two, but I ended up not being able to get to 20 on the first run only completing 18.7 as I ran out of time.  Anyway, read on:

I've been having a bit of reduced running confidence recently.  I've started a new job to gain extra experience in fitness whilst I complete my PT training - that's going really well by the way, got 100% on my torso training and core stability exam the other week.

The new schedule has meant fitting in the runs hasn't been as easy, plus getting used to working on someone else's schedule for a while is making me more tired.  I have put in a few extra rest days and I think this is why my confidence is falling despite having hit every planned session in January.  

Because of the low confidence I thought a bit of a race might help me build it up, so I decided to do a parkrun on a weekend I wouldn't be able to fit in my long run anyway- no holding back on the parkrun, just do it and go for a pb.  My previous 400m repeats session back in late January suggested that a sub-22 was within my reach but I thought that would be a stretch on the Colchester course with that energy sapping hill twice!

I tried to convince Ian to run with me- he had previously offered to pace me around to get to 22, but he had his own goals for this day- see his post here:  http://ianelden.blogspot.co.uk 

At the start, Danny offered to go around with me, but I knew he would get too excited and if I tried to stay with him I would blow up by the end of the first mile :)

I started right at the front with all the fast men and by the time we were at the castle my garmin was reading 6:16 pace- there was no way I could keep this up!! 22 min would be 7:04 pace.  I knew from previous pbs on this course that there was a good 20s differential between first and second mile pace due to the hills, so really I needed 6:50 on mile 1 to allow for 7:10 on mile 2, hoping I could speed up again in the last mile.  

However, that early burst meant I struggled to get it back- I was going at a good pace to make my target, but in terms of a well paced run for this course, it wasn't - I went out way too fast and struggled up the second hill, although still managed to overtake people!

Ended up getting 21:36 and a shiny new pb, over a minute quicker than my last pb on this course set in December!  Started to get my confidence back ahead of a few planned races that should help give confidence in my marathon pace...

A tale of two halves

Last Sunday, I woke up early excited to do the Great Bentley Half Marathon.  Excited because this was going to be a pb, and excited because it would hopefully give me a time that showed a London Good for age time in my marathon is achievable.  I had been ill the last few days but I just thought my business was what was making me feel worse, so I had had an early night in the hope a long sleep would shift it.  A few minutes after I woke and was getting ready, I started to cough, and then the waves of tiredness swept over me, despite the 11 hour sleep.  I thought I better check my resting heart rate, and not going below 80, it confirmed I just wasn't well enough to race.  I told some friends on Facebook, and their outpouring of love and support overwhelmed me a bit.  I actually had a cry!  I can't believe I cried over not being able to do the race.  I later apologised to David for being such a pansy, and crying over a DNS, but he said you're not a pansy, you're passionate... Smart man, I should marry him.

I went on to Great Bentley to cheer on my friends, and about 30 minutes after the race start, my sinuses started to block up again, and I was at peace with my decision.  An emergency trip to tesco for sudafed allowed me to breath with my mouth closed, waiting to go out and cheer my friends.  I got to the finish at about 1:25, and Danny came whizzing past at 1:28!!!! He said that although the wind was bad, it wasn't as bad as it had been when we ran together on the seafront a few weeks ago.  There were many pbs achieved by my friends.  I had my eye on Lorraine- our Parkrun times are similar, but I suspect she copes better with speed endurance.  She got in in 1:43:46!!! Ahh my goal was going to be 1:45 (8mm) I wasn't sure I could do Lorraine's time of 7:55mm.  After the race, we went back to Somei's who had got a massive pb despite surgery a week ago, for a hot tub party.  This was great for my achy muscles, and was really nice to get to know everyone a bit better.  Inspired by everyone's success, I was determined to find another half marathon I could do to test it as a race.  I'm already signed up to Colchester half, but my plan is to run that at marathon pace.  This half was to tell me my marathon pace is realistic.

I knew @malcsbarbour was doing the Dorney lake race your pace half marathon, and I thought it was the following week.  Some googling when I got home confirmed this, but 10am Saturday morning when David would have to drive, plus £32 race entry seemed a bit steep.  David offered it to me as a Valentines day present, and I was happy again... Really must marry this guy, he knows the way to my heart is through my feet...

Until Friday when I saw what the weather was going to be doing!  I thought I'd escaped a windy run by not doing Great Bentley, but alas, I spent Friday night worrying if we were actually going to make it too the race venue.  It was a hard drive because it was so windy, but I had executed my pre race nutrition plan perfectly, so perfectly that by the time we got to Dorney, I was bursting for the loo.   I was very amused to see this sign in the portaloo....

I did wonder if it was referring to the race, or going to the toilet...

We then got into the shelter of the boat house, giving up on our previous meeting point which would have been outside.  Through twitter, we managed to meet up 

@rachelclarke, @malcsbarbour, @james_e_carroll, @james linney and me, oh and were photo bombed by that tall chap behind!

A bit of chat about goals and expectations before we hustled down to the start.  I did a quick warm up jog and felt a twinge in my hip, I suspect from  sitting down in the car.  Gave it a quick massage and hoped it was just pre-race nerves.  I found the 8mm pacer with James, and had a quick chat to him about his pacing plan, given the windy conditions.  He was intending to stay bang on 8mm.  There were two other 8mm pacers and I didn't hear their chat, and wondered whether they had decided on something else as the race got going.

I stuck with the one who said he was running 8mm evens for the first couple of miles, but the grouping of the people around him was starting to get to me, especially the big men with their pointy elbows, and meanness not letting me in the crowd.  Shortly after 2 miles, we crossed over the bridge and with that small shelter firm the wind I caught up with the 8mm pacer group who were just ahead.  I kept with them but could feel the gear was switching up a bit, and we did the 3rd mile in 7:45, dramatically pulling away from the other 8mm pacer behind.  All I had read on pacing groups suggested that sticking with a group will allow you to go a little bit faster than you are capable of, so I decided to stick with them,  but too many pointy elbowed men meant I kept getting dropped off the back.  When they started another mile going at 7:30 and didn't seem to be slowing, I decided I better get back into my own pace, as I wasn't able to gain the benefits from the group.  The time in hand would hopefully help me later in the race in case this earlier running too fast would cause me to blow up.

I took my first gel at 5miles and not wanting to lose time, I ran with it- I don't usually practise this, and I was thinking of @mia79gbr's report of this race last year and how she squirted gel in her eye.  I took small sips of the gel so that I wasn't running too long without breathing.  I was on my own now, but could see the fast pacer group ahead of me.  I was contemplating when to start my final push, 8 miles, 9 miles? 10 miles?  I didn't think 8 miles would work as I still needed to take on another gel, and the wind was affecting me, since I didn't have a group around to shield me from the wind.  I took the first gel that came out of my pouch- luckily it was a caffeine gel, and started sipping on it, after I stopped at the water station.  This was half way thru the third lap, with one more lap to go.  Really I could push at any point from here, especially as the wind was slightly favourable as you run toward the boathouse.  I passed the slowest runner here as the front runner passed me, and it made me think that despite the pacer going off fast, it was a really good way to avoid congestion on a multi-lap course.

I was trying to do some calculations now,  would I be able to beat my sub 1:45 target, would I be able to beat Lorraine's time?  Both were dependent on keeping going at my pace and beating Lorraine's was dependent on being able to pick it up.  The wind had dropped a bit on my last run away from the boathouse, but I still struggled to stay under 8mm, maybe it was psychological now.  I had to have a bit of a talking to myself to get it done.  Less than a Parkrun left to run.  I did start to smile that I had my pb now, and as mile 10 clicked to mile 11 I smiled that I had achieved my 1:45 target.  Now it was about how far under that I could go.  Could I do sub 1:44??  Could I do sub 1:43?  I thought I could but as always there was a bit of a mental struggle.  As mile 11 clicked to 12, I picked up the pace and was doing 7:30, which seemed incredible to me as it's faster than my best 10k pace- another sign that the training is paying off.  I very soon passed the pacer group that had gone off too fast, and there wasn't much of a group left, perhaps proving that they were too fast.  12 miles into the race, and I was starting to get hot, perhaps because the wind had dropped.  So I rolled down my arm warmers and took off my gloves, with about 800m to go.  I really started pushing and could tell I was going up a gear as I managed to pass people, and even the girl who had started running with me around 11 miles seemed to vanish.  Instead of doing another lap, I could turn left into the finish chute. I thought it was going to be longer but only about 20m to the mats, David and elephant were there to cheer me across the line and I could see the clock on 1:43:xx I was determined It wouldn't get to 1:44 but didn't dare look at my garmin as I was focusing on my stride.

I stopped the garmin on 1:43:05!!! Wowsers a 7 minute pb, and last year in march I did 1:56 so 13 minutes improvement in less than a year.

I was a very happy bunny

 Great medal too!  It has a tortoise and a hare... I guess I was the tortoise since I overtook the hares pacer group at 12 miles 

And here are my paces:

I managed to catch up with Rachel and Malcs at the end.  Both had had brilliant races!  Malcs achieving sub 1:30, and Rachel also achieving a 7 minute pb and a perfectly executed race, despite losing her glasses in the wind at around 4 miles!

It was expensive for a half marathon, but you did get a decent medal and technical tee out of it.. I would mention the pacers too- I think they were great in that they allowed people to start largely in the right places, whilst I passed people at the end, I wasn't passing swathes of people who had started too fast, as I usually do.  I would only suggest that perhaps the pacers should have more frequency, as a minute per mile is quite a big gap between, especially at the sharp end.   I'm sure that if they had set up groups that were going for a time, it may have been a bit more successful.  Especially as with conditions like that, running a dead even pace isn't the best strategy. 

All in all, a brilliant race, and the best Valentines day present EVER!!  Good job I am marrying that guy really ;)