Half Marathon a Month Challenge 2015 - Q2 (April to June)

This post covers the half marathons that Chris and I ran in the second quarter of 2015. Details of Q1 and THE WHOLE OF 2014 can be found in previous posts.

-------------

12th April 2015
Chris - Angus HAM  - 01:57:58
Frank - Angus HAM - 02:05:41
(Results)

After an entire quarter of home cooked half marathons in Q1 of 2015 it was refreshing to start running in some organised events in Q2. The first of these involved a return to one of our 2014 venues... Monikie, for the Angus Half Marathon.

As with the previous year I was ably supported by my team of Clare and Scarlett, who made the trip up to Angus with me. 

We soon met up with Chris on arrival at Monikie Country Park and we both went through the usual ritual of picking up our race numbers and safety pins from the registration tent. Everything so far was a replica of what happened in 2014, but would the running experience and results be the same??

A 'feature' of the route that caught us by (unpleasant) surprise last year was the huge steep hill right at the end of the race. Despite this you may recall that Chris still managed to finish in under 2 hours, although I didn't fare as well, and trotted in about 4 minutes behind him.

In my opinion Chris only runs his half marathons in one style, which is as fast as he can depending on the route and how he's feeling on the day. I was in no doubt that he would therefore go sub 2 hours again, which he duly did, improving on his 2014 time in the process.

I have a less consistent approach to how I'm going to tackle each run. I can be tenacious on occasion, squeezing evert bit of effort from myself in order to achieve my goal. However, I can also quite easily succumb to laziness and take a more relaxed approach! I knew well in advance of this run that it was going to be a 'lazy day', and that I had therefore no chance of going sub 2 hours. You can see the result above! 

There's not much more to say about the race itself that is different from the post for Q2 2014, so I shall finish by highly recommending the Sherrifmuir Inn, where we stopped with Chris and Margaret-Ann on the road back south.  An outstandingly good place to replenish electrolytes. Yum yum yum!

-------------

31st May 2015
Chris - (Result) - Edinburgh EMF  - 01:55:33
Frank (Result)  - Edinburgh EMF  - 01:54:29

Chris and I had both run the Edinburgh Half Marathon before, but on separate occasions. Back in 2013 it was the very first half marathon I had ever run, and I completed it in just under 02:10, far enough ahead of a guy dressed as the Cookie Monster to ensure that I wasn't in the same official event photos as him! Chris ran it last year as part of the 2014 half marathon a month challenge, and he finished with a highly creditable 01:56:31. Both of us would of course being trying to improve on our previous times for this event, but it was obviously going to be much easier for me to achieve this than Chris!

We had each entered the event separately, and at different times, so on the day of the race Chris was in the wave that started down on London Road at 8am and I was up on Regent Road, starting at 8.05am. Given that Chris almost always finishes before me anyway, this in-built gap practically guaranteed it.

In the build up to the event that morning there was a disconcerting Met Office warning about storms and very high winds on the east coast that day. I may have mentioned this in previous posts, but I'm more than happy with it raining during a distance running event, as long as it's not torrential, and as long as it's not accompanied by high winds. Fortunately the Met Office warning was rather overstated, and despite a brief downpour immediately prior to the race (see photo!), conditions were almost perfect during the entire run.

Now, the thing about the Edinburgh Half Marathon is that almost a third of it is downhill from the start to the point where you take a sharp right at Seafield. I actually had no set intention of going for any particular targets that day, however I had trained quite intensely in the preceding 4 weeks, and I felt really good on that morning. After I had completed the first 5k of the course I realised that I had actually broken my 5k PB by 10 seconds! (My 5k PB is not that fast, but this was still impressive given that I had 16k to go!) By the time I had reached Seafield at the 6k mark I was still running at a pace faster than my 5K PB pace. This was either going to be a great opportunity, or it was going to end in tears!

Sure enough, at about the 15k mark I was hitting a wee bit of a wall, and my pace started slowing significantly. After struggling on for the next 3k I was doing the typical pace/distance/time calculations in my head when it dawned on me that if I ran the last 3k in less than 16mins and 40 seconds I would set a new overall PB for the half marathon. I had put myself in a really good position and it was just a matter of how badly I wanted it. So I decided I did want it! Those final three kilometres were some of the toughest I've put myself through during all this running malarky, but I was absolutely over the moon when I ultimately took 12 seconds of my previous PB. I soon hooked up with Chris, who had a fantastic run too. Celebration beers were now in order, so it was rather convenient that there was a beer tent supplying cask quality pints of nectar and electrolytes to thirsty runners like us!  

Post run warn down activities took us into town. Of course it was a Sunday and we had finished the run before 10.30am, so it was going to take someone with intimate knowledge of the capital's hostelries to ensure we were sufficiently rehydrated that early in the day. Fortunately Christopher is exactly that type of person! We spent the rest of day passing time in the hostelries below. Time well spent I would say!

Halfway House 
The Bow Bar
The Last Drop
The Malt Shovel
Mathers

-------------

16th June 2015 
Frank - Edinburgh  - 02:22:26

28th June 2015
Chris - Peterhead  - 01:59:45
(Results)

Unfortunately, due to holiday arrangements, I was unable to participate in an organised event in June, and due to various other commitments the only day where I would have time to run a home cooked half marathon would be immediately after work on 16th June. It turned out to be an unmitigated disaster, with a lesson learned.

Now where do I start when talking about what went wrong with this run? Well, let's just jump to the principal problem! It's extremely important to make sure you have taken on the proper nourishment and fuel before running a half marathon, and for a morning run (which they almost always are) that means getting up early enough to get a good and appropriate breakfast in you about a couple of hours before the run. For this evening start run I had worked out that a 12pm lunch involving a baked potato, supplemented by an energy bar around 5pm, should just about do the trick.

You know when you get one of those days at work when your scheduled diary goes straight out the window? This was one of those days. Ended up I had no lunch at all, although I did manage to grab a sandwich just after 2pm. To compound that problem I forgot to take my energy bar at 5pm! Doh! I eventually stuffed it in my face just before the run. Not ideal, but perhaps it would help out at some point. 

I felt pretty much ok for the first 7k of the run and, although I had no particular target time in mind, I had naturally settled into a 2 hour finishing pace.  Little did I realise that during this time my energy reserves were rapidly approaching empty. 

It was at 7k that I knew something wasn't quite right, but it is often the case that you have a wee dip during a run, so I kept going at the same pace. By the time I had hit the 10k mark though (not even half way!) I was absolutely empty. It is highly unusual for me to walk during a half marathon (and typically only on steep hills, not on a flat track like this one), but I had to give in and start to walk for a bit,

I immediately felt better when I started walking though, and I attempted to start running again fairly soon afterwards. Didn't last long though and I had to alternately walk and slowly jog for the next 3k, when things changed for the better!

What could have changed things for the better? Well, I had reached a Tesco Metro! I was starving and hypoglycaemic, and in the shop I purchased two bananas, a packet of strawberry Fruitella, and a Lucozade Sport. I ate the two bananas while continuing to walk the route, and I also ate the packet of Fruitella quickly, like it was a banana!  

Very soon I was able to start running again, although it was at a marathon, not a half marathon pace. I was delighted when the whole ordeal was over!

Chris drove what I calculate to be a 330 mile round trip from Falkirk to Peterhead on the same day to run this Half Marathon. That's commitment for you! As you can see he also went sub 2 hour AGAIN! This is becoming a habit for the man!



COMING UP NEXT..... 

... Q3 of the Half Marathon a Month Challenge 2015. I complete this up in Aberfeldy on 5th September, but Chris has to wait until the Scottish Half Marathon on 19th September. So, I'll be back here then!