Life is not fair

Of course, with my fitness level as crap as it is, it’ll be a slow race gentle trot round St. Albans. But it’s nice scenery round there, and I’m sure the weather will be good. Should be fun. And I’ve still got a month to get my fitness back up.

Map for this race is here. Full results are here. I finished in 1844th place. Woot!

The Watford Half Marathon was held on Sunday 6th Feb, with the gun going off at 10.30 sharp. Given the warnings in the race packet about parking, I cycled into Watford from my house about a mile outside. I was feeling kind of nervous, so I left early. I wanted plenty of time to find everything at the race start. (And pay lots of visits to the portapotties…) The town center was deathly quiet that early in the morning, just a few people drifting into work and the cleaners sweeping up the wreckage of Saturday night.

When I got closer to Cassiobury Park, though, there was a steady stream of people carrying kit bags, all heading in toward the Park. The Race HQ was easy to stop–a huge white marquee set up at the top end of the park. The two starts (Ladies and Vets, and Mens) hadn’t been inflated, and techs were fussing around the timing strips laid at the finish. I locked up my bike, went in, changed into my running gear, and dumped my bag and coat with the baggage people.

And then I got really really nervous. When there are things to distract you, the nerves go, but when there’s nothing to do, you can’t help but think about it. The only good thing about arriving so early was that I got to use the portapotties before the queues became heroic.

With about 30 mins left, I started to warm up, and by the time the 5 minute warning sounded, I started to realize I might have made a mistake with what I was wearing. The problem I’d had on my training runs was not getting warmed up for ages during the long run, and getting chilly during the run itself. So for the race, I was wearing running trousers (not tights), a wooly hat, and two tops: one short sleeved and very tight, the other one of the Nike Dri-Fit long-sleeved tops. I had thought I’d be okay with this, because normally I run with a sweat shirt or fleece, but after a 25 minute warm up, I was starting to feel overheated. But it was too late to do anything at that point.

When we were in the starting lane, I looked around for the Runner’s World pacers that had been advertised, but couldn’t see them. Probably just me being useless. I know they were there, because I got passed by them later on in the race.

The first part of the course was down through the Park. I was trying to keep to my goal pace from the beginning, but I got swept up in the start and ended up going too fast. Lots of people were rushing past me, and I’d put myself nearly at the back of the starting lane.

The course leaves the Park by the side entrance, then gets onto flattish streets. I cut down my pace again when we hit concrete, and got passed by even more people. But I wasn’t suffering the same kind of shin pain I had during my training runs. I had to concentrate on my gait too, but generally, I felt pretty good.

The course then heads up some shallow inclines for a couple of miles, then heads left up Grove Mill Lane, which is where the hills start. I ran up most of the first hill (slowly), but stopped to walk near the top. I was thinking of what I’d read on an ultra site about walking up hills and running down–but I think now that was a mistake, because it was like giving myself permission to walk whenever it got tough. looking back on it, I should have just slowed down, tried to keep my heart rate constant, and kept running. (Lesson One: Don’t stop.)

The course heads out of built-up areas here and goes through small country roads (traffic stopped by police and race marshals). It climbs steadily up to mile 7, with some steeper drops and hills, then levelled off. By this time, I was getting knackered. Someone told me that the major hill was about one third of the way through, and then the rest of the course was downhill. Foolishly, I believed them, and I’d been going all out to try and catch up some distance after walking up some of the first hill. But after the first hill, it just went up and up. I ended up at around mile 8 feeling blown. (Lesson Two: Don’t Believe Other People About Hills.)

The water stops came every four miles or so. There was plenty of water available–but I had to stop to drink it. I’d not given myself any practise running and drinking, and I attempted it at the first one, only to spill the water over my shirt. I was also getting very thirsty. I was sweating a lot, and even taking off the cap and unzipping my top didn’t seem to help very much. (Lesson Three: Don’t Wear Too Much Clothing.) Besides this, during my long training runs, I’d taken along a sports drink on my nifty bottle carrying thingy, and I’d been drinking a lot. I think I suffered from the lack of this during the race–and I definitely felt it afterward. (Lesson Four: Don’t Change Anything on Race Day.)

After the halfway point, the course was generally downhill, although with a nasty surprise at miles 8 and 9–short, very steep hills that I walked up. Still nice scenery though, and when we came into the woods after Chandler’s Cross, it was lovely. This was the best part of the race for me. I was really, really tired, but I fell in behind someone going at just the right pace, and my legs got into a rhythm that required no thought from me. At times, I felt like I was floating over the ground. I think it helped that this was trail running, without the harsh jarring that you get from road running.

After the woods, the course heads into Croxley Green and back onto roads. After the trails in the woods, my legs really started complaining at this point, and my pace started to drop. I had to keep looking at my Garmin to check my speed, otherwise I’d drop down to 11 mins/mile plus.

And now we come to the hardest part, the really ‘dig deep’ bit. The course came back into the Park, then turned sharply right, ran up to the end of the park, looped round, and came back down. This meant that for the first half of mile 13, I could see the finish line . . . but I was running away from it. Ah, the agony!

I sped up for the finish, passed a few people, but then got blasted by a woman wearing a David Lloyd Pacers t-shirt who I’d been passing and being passed by all the way round the course.

My legs started to lock up as soon as I stopped running. Stretching helped some, but when I got myself cycling back, that really reduced the pain. The next morning (today), my legs were tremendously painful, but an ice-bath reduced that a lot, and I’m heading out for a cycle ride as soon as I finish this.

Final time: 2:16:16 by my Garmin. Official time, TBC.

Lessons:

One: Don’t Stop Running

Two: Don’t Believe Other People About Hills

Three: Don’t Wear Too Much Clothing–chilly at the start, comfortable during the run

Four: Don’t Change Anything on Race Day

Five: Ice-baths Actually Work

Finished the Half Marathon in 2:16:16 (according to my Garmin, so not official). Not as fast as I hoped, but faster than my training runs predicted. (By about 4 minutes

Map is here. I’ll post more tomorrow; I’m too tired now. Photos coming from the official photographer.