At the start of the year training had been going that well that I’d got a shinny new 10K PB during a training run and had been doing 10 mile runs on consecutive weeks in a little over an hour. It felt good, and I was confident of finally getting a sub-90 half marathon time so entered the Coventry Half. However, this is where my attempts at half marathons took a wrong turn. I never got to try the Coventry Half as I caught the flu a few days before, and lost a couple of weeks of training too. I did turn this around and by the time of the Spring marathon season things were back on track.

With things looking good I entered the Leicester Half Marathon for the second year running, deciding as my current PB was on that hilly course then I could probably get my sub-90 there also. Again, things didn’t go according to plan and I lost some more training time due to an ankle injury I got whilst being a tourist in Moscow and found when I got back to training (which I wasn’t allowed to do any running on hills or trails for) that I hadn’t quite been prepared for running in the heat of the summer.

It felt like I was going from excuse to excuse – I’d lost quite a bit of speed during the summer and the Robin Hood marathon proved that I wasn’t ready. I knew my hope for a PB at the Leicester Half was nigh impossible. It left me wondering about the race as whatever time I finished in would be an indication of how much speed I’d lost.

On the race day it was spitting with rain and was cold, so I decided as I wasn’t sure how fast I’d be able to go I’d wear a hoodie and the usual shorts. Despite my reservations that I’d be capable of it, I stood around in the sub-90 pen and listened to people discuss their planned paces such as 7:30 and 10:30 minutes per mile. I did wonder why they were in a faster pen than their planned times, but to be honest I wasn’t expecting to get sub-90 either, not now anyway.

For the first 5K I was 7 seconds slower than last year, but was on target for a sub-90 time however. The first mile of this was down hill with a slow start due to the usual crowds, but I managed to get up to pace by the half way point in this mile. I didn’t know I was slightly behind where I was at this point last year but it felt like a good confidence boost.

After leaving Belgrave and the Golden Mile behind there were literally no spectators at all and time seemed to slow considerably. Once I reached Thurmaston the crowds were out in force and they were giving their usual great support. This time last year I remember that I was tired when leaving the village but this time I felt fine and was incredibly pleased (though I imagine some were unhappy as there was a car driving amongst the runners!). At this point I realised that I was ahead of time for getting a sub-90 time and thought that I might just actually do it.

As usual, after the dual carriageway the route then splits away from the marathon runners and heads into Watermead Country Park. It was at this point that I reached the 10K mark and although I didn’t know it at the time I was ahead time-wise compared to last year. Things were looking good, though I was starting to lose concentration as I knew this was coming up to the point where in the marathon I rolled my ankle dodging a cyclist. This year I dodged a cyclist again, but with ease, though I did splash through a puddle.

When leaving the country park I found the hill out to be draining and walked for a few steps. This was the beginning for the end for me as for the first time this race my pace dropped to be slower than 07:00 min/mile for mile 8. The next mile was then down hill so it wasn’t quite as bad and there was a sign I might still be able to keep going, but I couldn’t. As I got closer to the National Space Centre I was starting to walk again and must have walked at least three times during this mile. I did a quick calculation in my head and decided that if I could maintain an average pace of no slower than 07:30min/mile for the remainder that I could do it – I could get that time I wanted.

For the remainder of the race I knew it was going to be a case of convincing myself I could keep going even though my head was telling me I should walk for a bit. Over the remaining miles I walked frequently – but this point having developed a blister on my right toe and each mile was slower than the one that came before it. With only 2 miles left I knew I was no longer going to get the time I had originally planned for all those months ago, but there was still a chance of a PB – I hoped that would be enough to make me work harder. However I slowed further and soon found that even if by some miracle I was able to get back to at least 7 min/mile pace and maintain it, I wasn’t even going to match last years time. Feeling deflated I walked up most of New Walk and then only started running with 0.2 miles to go so that I could at least finish running.

I finished in position 132 of 1,932 finishers (first 6.8%), and 74th in my category, with a chip time of 1:33:23. That was 2:27 slower that last year’s race. It felt like a complete failure, but what I really should consider this to be is a benchmark to improve upon.

This year the goodie bag consisted of:

• Finishers medal,
• Finishers tee,
• Banana,
• A bottle of mineral water,
• Packet of Walkers crisps (it IS Leicester after all!),
• Haribo Super Mix,
• and a Granola bar.

Overall the race is pretty well supported, and I actually quite like the route despite the hills. I’m used to running smallish hills so don’t mind the ones in this race too much – just I know this year I was under prepared for them. I now know how much I’ve slowed down by now, and what areas I need to work more on so hopefully in the next few months I can do another half marathon and even though it won’t be in 2016 as planned, I should hopefully still manage to achieve this goal.

Now that I can, over the next few months I’ll start to reintroduce hills into my runs and will also try to keep up with the speedwork as well as I prepare to train for my next (well, next next) marathon.