Half Marathon a Month Challenge 2015 - Q1 (January to March)

This post covers the first three half marathons that Chris and I ran for our 2015 Half Marathon a Month Challenge. Details of the completed 2014 challenge can be found in previous posts!

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After managing to achieve our objective of running a half marathon every month in 2014, Chris and I decided that we might as well keep it going into 2015. Unfortunately, the way things worked out we had to run home cooked half marathons during all of Q1. This was due to a combination of half marathon (non)availability and negligence in entering the official events available in the allotted time! In March, for example, we should have been running the Alloa Half M (which I was actually really looking forward to) but race entries closed much sooner than we had both anticipated, so we had to sort something out ourselves as you will see later. I'm pleased to say that Q2 is already much more organised in that respect!

24th January 2015 

Chris - Falkirk - 02:02:57

Frank - Falkirk - 02:02:57

This is Chris's home territory, and he put together the course which covered Falkirk, Grangemouth and Stenhousemuir, and all their salient points of interest! There turned out to be quite a lot of these, and the run took in (a lot of) the canal, the Kelpies and two footy stadiums. 

This year we were both hoping to finish 2015 with an average half marathon time under 2 hours, so we were keen to establish this pattern in month 1. Alas, due mainly to some of the inevitable delays at traffics lights you get in some of these self organised events, we came in nearly 3 minutes over. (I have to say that 20 seconds of this were self inflicted for the 'selfie at the Kelpies' pic below). 

After the run we met up with Clare and Margaret-Ann, and the post run recovery was enjoyed at the excellent Behind The Wall, with their many tasty cask ales!

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21st February 2015 

Chris - Cumbrae - 01:55:42

Frank - Cumbrae - 02:05:13

As you can see from our comparative times, this was the first home made half marathon where we didn't finish together. 

Cumbrae is almost exactly 10 miles in circumference, so if you set off from Fintry Bay, run a full lap, and then finish in Millport town, you will have covered the half marathon distance. It was one of those classic Scottish weather days where we had a combination of pleasant sunshine, 30mph winds and heavy hailstones! 

We set out as we did in Falkirk at a pace well inside a 2 hour finish, and we were both cruising quite comfortably in spite of the occasional challenges the weather threw at us. At the 8 mile point we had not long passed the ferry terminal when we ran into a sustained and strong headwind. This event really knocked the stuffing out of me and it became obvious that I wasn't going to recover enough to keep pace with Chris, who was still jogging along nicely. I told Chris not slow down for me, and proceeded to watch him disappear into the distance. 

The final 5 miles were the worst I had ever experienced in all the half marathons to-date, even those such as Barcelona and Stratford-Upon-Avon where I was still suffering a wee bit from the previous day's festivities. My left leg in particular was cramping up quite severely and on about five occasions I had to walk to recover. Despite this ordeal it was only my sixth worst time, which I put down to the very quick pace that was banked during the first 8 miles. In hindsight I realise I didn't prepare for this run as well as I should have, especially in terms of nutrition and hydration in the week running up to it. 

When I finally hobbled into Millport Town I found Chris on the beach skimming stones into the Firth of Clyde and looking as fresh as a daisy. Clare thoughtfully decided to video me 'completing' the last hundred metres, and I have kept this footage as a warning on how not to prepare for a half marathon!

Our post run recovery commenced on the island of Cumbrae itself in the famous Newton Bar. Some (Belhaven) electrolytes were taken there and Clare then dropped us off on the mainland. The rest of the afternoon/evening continued with recovery sessions in salubrious establishments such as MacAulay's in Largs and The Vale in Glasgow!

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21st March 2015 

Chris - Edinburgh - 01:59:18

Frank - Edinburgh - 01:59:18

Regular readers of this blog may recall our final half marathon of the 2014 challenge, which involved visiting a few watering holes during an Edinburgh based run. Our actual running time on that occasion (elapsed time minus pub time) was just over 02:03,  so as we had negligently missed our applications for the Alloa Half M in March, we decided to give our December 2014 route another try, but this time without the beers.

We started off in Edinburgh city centre at a very fast pace, and even though the first half of the route is a combination of downhill and flat, by the time we were 5 miles in I was struggling again(!) I said to Chris that it was likely he would have to run ahead of me as he did in Cumbrae, and that I would meet him in the pub afterwards. However, at just before the half way point, at 10km in, everything changed for me and I found a whole lot of energy. The remaining 11km was still difficult, but I was much more comfortable with my running.

In the meantime I had also been monitoring our average pace, and with just over 1km to go I told Chris that we had a great chance to finish just under the 2 hours. What made things a bit more difficult was that half of that final 1,000 metres was uphill, but we made it with 42 seconds to spare!

We then had a wee warm down walk up to Spiers Bar 10  to partake of our first electrolytes of the day. After that we spent the rest of the day enjoying the rugby amongst the apparently thousands of Irish fans who were in the capital. Of course, given that Scotland were out of the race, we made a suitable choice for whom we were backing for the Six Nations title!

Q1 2015 - Average Running Time

Chris - 01:59:19

Frank - 02:02:28

Good news on the average times so far compared to 2014. Chris is nearly 2 minutes faster than his 02:01:09 from last year , and I am a massive 9 seconds better off! Let's see what Q2 brings...

(We've already run the April Half M for Q2 (a return to Monikie), but I'll keep the details of that for a future post!)