Philosophical: the Wolverhampton Half Marathon

I usually play a teasing game with race reports of leaving the result to the end. Will she catch her rival? Will she get a PB? etc. This time let's get straight to the finish:

I knocked 19 minutes off my 2 year old half marathon PB with a time of 1:34:47. I finished 7th woman out of 300 and 3rd over 40.

I'm disappointed.

Why?

I'd entered the race to get an assurance that I was on form for a 3:15 marathon. 1:34:47 only predicts 3:20 on the MacMillan calculator. All doom and gloom then! Well there are some pluses I can take away.

I've had a very hard few weeks of training and the taper for this race was an easy day on Friday and a rest day on Saturday. I felt very tired on the Friday and was still quite tired going into the race.

I was chatting to some folks on the start line and was warned that the second half of the race was much slower than the first. On my experience I'd have to agree. I was setting a good pace for the first 4 miles, feeling good, but then a series of uphill sections started which slowed me down considerably. Then we turned into a strong headwind on the exposed middle section of the course (much of which is uphill) and my pace suffered again. I was overtaking people all this time, so I don't believe it was the case that I went off too quickly. Looking at the heart rate data I think I paced fairly well, although my heart rate was a few beats down on what I'd expect for a half marathon, fatigue having its effect.

When I'd looked at the course last month I'd been a bit damning about it, using terms such as 'inner city squalor'. Having now run it, I don't think it's that bad - Wolverhampton is never going to match the London Marathon for sights - but West Park is really rather nice. Given the hilltop nature of Wolverhampton I don't think you could add any 'sights' without making it a much tougher course. I should mention that this is also a marathon event - the marathon being 2 laps. Quite a tough marathon course!

It was quite a warm day: 21°C and almost unbroken sunshine. Not ideal for fast times, but much better than the heat of previous years.

The addition of a kids fun run, a cycle race and a half marathon relay is something clearly aimed at making the race as inclusive as possible. The relay started 5 minutes ahead of us and I wasn't surprised to be catching people after only 1 mile. I'll accept that some people find 3 miles such a challenge that they have to walk it - we all need to start somewhere. What I find staggering though is that I was catching cyclists at half way; the cycle race having started 15 minutes before us. With a 15-minute head start I was catching cyclists after only 7 miles! Despite my own pace problems, I still think the course can only be described as undulating. When the back marker cyclists hit the 'hills' though, some of them couldn't get up them even in their lowest 'granny' gear. I passed kids, young women, middle aged men - a dozen or more cyclists from across the spectrum. What is wrong with the state of the nation's health that you can't beat a half marathon runner with 15 minutes head start on a bicycle? Staggering (literally!).

Not a bad race all in all. The organisation was pretty good. I gather there may have been problems at around 2 hours when there was a problem getting everyone through the finish funnel quickly - I didn't see this though. As I mentioned before, West Park is a nice venue and the facilities were good.

Here are my splits and ave HRs. You can see how my pace was affected by the hills and wind after the opening miles. My heart rate should have been around 150bpm. If I'd been fresher I would have found it easier to maintain this, although the hills and wind would still have had an affect.
6:49 139
6:55 147
6:59 148
6:52 149
7:14 148
7:07 148
7:23 148
7:13 148
7:35 147
7:13 147
7:38 149
7:24 147
7:24 151

Overall average was 147bpm, only 2 bpm above typical marathon pace, so more to come when fresh. I'm sure on a flat course I would have got close to 1:30. Thanks to all my online friends who have been trying to convince me of the fact that I'm well on course for a 3:15 marathon - it's much appreciated.


I must finally mention Mick'n'Phil again. I last encountered this whirlwind on 2 legs and 4 wheels in the Bramley 20. Mick pushes his son Phil round the course in a wheelchair. They've now done 200 races together. Phil provides the energy and his dad trails around in his wake (although his dad seems to insist he's doing all the work!) Well done lads. You're an inspiration.