Wilmslow Half Marathon 2008 Special

Hello,
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Quick results for this race below

Pos / out of Official time Personal time
868 / 3449 1:43:29 1:42:14 - PB
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What a weekend! Two of my uni mates came up, we had Bakewell tarts in Bakewell, another good friend of mine proposed to his girlfriend… and she said yes, and the weather was glorious for the Wilmslow half marathon on the Sunday. Could life get any better? Well yes as it turned out!

The Wilmslow half is a big half marathon, and had the usual big race atmosphere. My race plan was based on an article I’d read online about heart rate zones, and essentially was to keep my heart rate reasonably low (i.e. run slower), and gradually increase the speed in the second half of the race. My mate Dave from uni was also running but would be taking it easy as he had the Paris Marathon the next weekend. The race route is below.

As the race started I was running with a fellow Stockport Harrier, but he was too quick for the heart rate zone I was trying to stay in so I let him go and listened to my MP3 player. The course took us round the country roads of Wilmslow and past some very well to do houses with some kind locals cheering us on.

I saw Ben who’d come to cheer us on somewhere around the 8K mark and I was still keeping my running slow. I’d been following a chap who looked a bit Rasta with “Don Juan” on his back and he was proving to be a good pace setter. It was a slow-ish pace, and as I approached the 10K mark the time was 50:39. It had been a fairly consistent 5 minutes per kilometre for me at this point.

As I past the 12K mark I was over halfway and feeling very fresh. There was no horrible pain like at Buxton the year before, and I decided now was the moment to “put the smack down” as they say on WWE. Between now and the finish line, I ran every kilometre quicker than the one before, with the final kilometre being run in 4:06. I even managed to catch and then overtake my Stockport Harrier mate up who’d left me for dead at the beginning.

I crossed the line still with the feeling I had a bit left in the tank, with a new PB (1:42:14), but most importantly, a far better understanding of what works better for me on long distance races. My mate Dave who had been taking it easy put a turn of pace in at the end and crossed in 1:52:22 and is looking great for his Paris marathon attempt next weekend… good luck Dave.

The marshalling was excellent, and the race organisation was really good. The Wilmslow half is a very impressive event and fairly flat so definitely a good half for getting a PB on.

Cheers

Andy

Salford 10K 2008 Special

Hello,

Quick results for this race below.

Pos Num M Cat CatPos Pace per Km/Mile Time
203 238 181 M (097/182) 04.16/06.51 42:36

Well I was looking forward to this race as the Salford 10k is a fast course ready made for a PB. I ran it in 2005 (my first ever 10K) and recorded a time of 48:14. I was expecting to beat this time, but I didn't think that I'd set a new PB as my training had been more geared toward the London Marathon.

On turning up at the venue, I was impressed at how much it had changed since 2005. Now there is a wonderful purpose built sports venue with footy and hockey astro turf pitches and a great little sports centre. Salford has obviously been investing a bit of money in the area. The other thing of note was that there was a really strong headwind down the long straight. Having met up with a few of the Stockport Harriers, they were pessimistic about setting a PB with this wind as it was strong!

The course route is shown below and is two laps of the road network.

The start was on time and there was about 500 so it was reasonsably busy for the first 3kms or so. The headwind really made itself felt as we crossed the river leading to the long straight section, and it was so strong that it reduced my speed to just above walking! I've never experienced anything like it in a city, up on a mountain yes, but in the city!?!?! Thankfully the bridge was a short section, and after that the houses just took the edge off wind so it was just a long strength sapping straight with the wind in your face. Another reminder of why headwind can be worse than hills!

As I passed the halfway mark my time was 20:26, which was a little faster than I'd been hoping for. At this point though it became a lot harder to maintain the speed and I noticed my bodies composure slipping which makes your running style suffer and become less efficient. I managed to pull it together during the back straight but by then my core muscles were spent and as I rounded the corner to face the windy bridge I knew I was in trouble.

During the last long straight a large group of people overtook me and I then threw everything I had to overtake them. Just as the finish line was in sight, I started feeling really bad inside and checked my heart rate which was dangerously high at 199bpm (for men, the simple maximum heart rate formula is 220bpm minus your age). I had to slow down, and the last 10 metres were slightly off pace. A graph of it all is below.

The blue line is pace (minutes per kilometer i.e. the lower the better) and you can see the difference the long straight made (3.5K to 6K) after which I wasn't able to recover the consistency.

Overall, it was a great race, and I'm happy with the time. Many of the Stockport Harriers managed PB's despite the wind, so some great performances out there. Gareth Raven from Sale Harriers won the race with an incredible time of 31:07, and the fastest Stockport Harrier time was recorded by Mike Shaw with 34:45. I hope to be back at this race next year, to try and set a new PB.

Cheers

Andy