Half Marathon a Month Challenge - March 2016 #27

Alloa Half Marathon - 20th March 2016

Our 27th consecutive monthly half marathon took place in and around Alloa in Clackmannanshire. The Alloa Half Marathon is a well established event (this was the 34th), which could have been half marathon #3 for us in 2014, if we hadn't been running Inverness instead, or indeed it could have been #15 in 2015, if we hadn't forgot to enter it in time! Doh! 

But hey, we were finally getting to run the Alloa Half, and me, Clare, and our wee dog Bailey headed to Falkirk to pick up Chris on the way there. 

It was a busy event but we managed to find a spot to stand in the car park before the race, where we could soak up the sunshine before the start. Yes, I said "soak up the sunshine". It was a lovely day as you can see here! 

It's about this time in my blog posts that I mention the various ailments that will contribute to my poor performance. So here we go...

As well as my still not fully healed knee injury, which also impacts my training schedule and therefore my fitness, I had managed to acquire the chest infection that was doing the rounds at that time. (I'm sure you remember it. You may also have been a victim).

Strictly speaking I probably shouldn't have been running in that condition, but the self deceiving thought* "I'll just take it easy", won the day, as I did not want the consecutive months of half marathons to stop for me at #26.

*You can't really take a half marathon "easy". It's a ridiculous thought.

Anyway, we crossed the start line in the sunshine and Chris sprinted off into the distance as usual. 

The first thing that happened was that my shoelace came undone before we had even reached 3km! That was very careless of me, and I would normally have doubled checked this sort of thing just prior to starting the race. On a happier note I stopped to fix it at the spot Clare had chosen to watch the first part of the race from! So, I got an extra good luck hug. And I would need it. 

Things seemed to be going pretty well for the first third of the race, but at around about 8km my whole body was complaining about the stress I was putting on it. I reckon this was primarily the work of the chest infection. So, even though I was daft enough to start the run in this condition, I wasn't quite daft enough to compound the problem by pushing myself too much. I decided to walk. After only 8km! 

In fact I recovered quite quickly, and after a couple of hundred metres I started running. I managed as far as 11km before I had to stop again, and by now I was feeling knackered and miserable with 10km still to go. I covered that remaining distance with very shortly spaced run/walk intervals. It was a real struggle, but I was actually settling down to a regular pace, albeit a slow one. In fact I could even text Clare my ETA at the finish line, which ended up being remarkably accurate.

It's a pity the second part of the race was such a nightmare, as it meant I effectively missed some of the interesting towns and scenery during that part of the course. However,  I think there's a good chance we'll be back in Alloa next year, so hopefully I'll be in better shape.

After the run we got back in the car and headed back to Falkirk. 

There we took on some much needed electrolytes at the bar in Graeme Hotel. The weather was so good we were even able to sit outside in the beer garden, which also suited Bailey the dog!

I'll finish up by saying a big thanks to Clare who happily took on the role of designated driver for the trip back to Glasgow, due to my ingestion of too many electrolytes!

Results:

Chris - 01:57:35

Frank - 02:20:29