Alloa Half Marathon 2016

I ran the Alloa Half-Marathon for the second year in a row (and I’ve been running every day in between).

The weather was amazing, it was officially the first day of spring and it looked like it too.  I arrived with not too much time to spare and by the time I had collected my race number, availed myself of the facilities, and made my way to the start line, there was only 3 minutes to go until the start.  The starting pistol sounded and after the usual wait of a few seconds to let the runners ahead of us start off we went.

 

In the zone?

Now, I had very low expectations for my performance in this race.  To be perfectly honest I didn’t even know if I had it in my legs to actually run 13.1 miles, never mind  the time.  I haven’t trained in 6 months, I haven’t been running any sort of distance, and my diet hasn’t been amazing.  I have been pre-occupied with Ruby.  She is doing great though and Kata and I can see light at the end of the tunnel with regard to getting at least a new kind of normality back into our lives.  I am planning to go back to training with HBT this Thursday.  So anyway, I set off in a relaxed frame of mind, not really bothered about times – my aim was to complete the race and try to keep it as respectable as possible.  I even said to Kata in the morning that running it in 2hrs would almost be better than running in 1hr 40mins and she said she knew what I meant.  For my run on Saturday I ran a very familiar 5km loop around Inverleith Park and I struggled to get air in my lungs.  During that run I was thinking about the Alloa Half-Marathon and was doing the arithmetic to calculate what my time would be if I averaged 5min/km.  Final whinge:  I had (have) a sore lower which is also baby related. 

 

The DANGER zone!

First km completed in 4:19.  Too fast.  Second completed in 4:17.  Need to slow down.  Third completed in 4:08.  What’s going on?!  I felt great and completed the first 10km in 44:15.  Considering how long it took me to break the 45 minute barrier for a 10km race, that’s not too bad.  I was feeling fine and started to think ahead.  I was on track for about 1hr 34mins, but I knew I would tire and I knew there was a big hill in my way.  Relax.  Just keep on keeping on. 

 

You ran how far?  For this?! 

The second half of the race was much slower.  Every kilometre was completed in 4:4x or 4:5x apart from the last one where I was digging  in and managed a 4:36.  At about the 10 mile mark, at the top of the hill, I could see that I was easily going to finish in under 1hr 40mins and I was very pleased with this.  I’d not have believed it if someone had told me that yesterday when I was coughing and wheezing my way around 5km of Inverleith Park.  I’m afraid that I relaxed a little too much and with about a mil and a half to go I thought I would PROBABLY finish in under 1hr 40mins.  All that was needed with a  slight change of gear and I finished in 1:37:37.  Very pleased with that and I am going to use this as a platform to kick on from.  Training on Thursday and I am going to do all I can to up the mileage and eat better.

 

13.1 miles.  Yes.

A few words on the event.  I really like Alloa Half-Marathon.  It’s the perfect size in my opinion (1002 finishers), and it’s a great route will supported by the locals.  A lot of people lining the streets, especially in Tillicoultry and Tullibody which is fantastic.  The hairs on my arms and neck were standing on end when I ran into the finish – the support is only matched by Men’s 10k in Glasgow or The Great Glasgow Run in my opinion.  The long back stretch is gruelling but beautiful.  I heard one guy next to me comment to no one in particular, “It’s a long road ahead”.  True words.  True words.

It was brilliant to see Kata and Ruby at the end, home straight.  Really nice – I was looking out for them but only saw them when Kata shouted on me.  Thanks, girls! Xx  Ruby was asleep and not that impressed J  One day she will care, I am sure she will.   

Other points of note;

•  Number 395 who overtook me FOUR TIMES, stopping to stretch his calves (or hamstrings – couldn’t tell) before re-joining and running by me.  I made it my goal to finish ahead of that guy and I did.  In your face Number 395!

•  The woman that was running with either her personal trainer or a really annoying guy.  They were around me from about 9 miles to the finish and were running next to one another.  He was chatting away to her about the race in a bright, cheery fashion, (about their pace, about the scenery, about last year’s race and signing up again for next year) seemingly oblivious to her grunts in response as she tried to breathe never mind chat.  Also a couple of times he stopped, peeled off to the side to take a photo, then caught up with her again.  I really hope he was her trainer.    

 Great race and I hope to make it a fixture in my calendar.  Thanks to everyone involved – the stewards, the organisers, and the entire population of Clackmannanshire for cheering us on.