After a RunThrough race in Leicestershire was cancelled, I transfered my place to the only other race that really fit in with my calendar for this year, and that was a half marathon in Battersea Park, London. I'd visited there earlier this year for a 10K and had decided I'd want to run there again in daylight sometime as I felt it was a good route for a 10K PB attempt. That never happened, but I was back anyway, to run a half marathon. The downside was it was an 09:30 start and that meant leaving home no later than 05:30 to get there in time (as long as there was no major delays on the M1 or on the tube).
My alarm was set for 04:50, giving me 40 minutes to get ready and be on the road to London. It’s less time than I’d normally give myself, but it was so early already I didn’t want it to be any earlier than that. It didn't help I was woken up by fireworks at around 02:00 in the morning either. I’d packed my bag last night and made sure everything I needed would be quick and easy to get. Maybe I could have done with more time, but I was on the road at 05:30, and on my way to London.
The sun was just starting to rise when I reached Stanmore, and as I made my way into London the dawn turned to day. I made my way at first to Waterloo Station, and from there on to Battersea Power Station. I knew roughly where to go from there and the distance it was from my previous visit. It’d make a relatively decent warm-up. I had planned to use some Tailwind for this race, as a practice for Jordan, but I’d forgotten to bring my running backpack - it already being packed, along with my #racecheck visor. Once I’d collected my number it was then a case of waiting until the race start at 09:30, except I did get to chat to Emma C (Lipstick & Trainers) and Edyta (who I knew from Malawi, along with her partner Eddie who was pacing a few people for different times today). Sadly I never got chance to chat with Eddie - it’d been 4 years since I’d seen both of them in person.
The first lap isn’t quite a full lap, so that in total it would be 8.75 laps. So after that first 0.75 I then began counting down the laps - a very mind numbing task. For the first few laps it seemed to go pretty well, and on laps 2 and 3 I was already lapping the back. As I got closer to the 4th lap though I was starting to lose it walked for a few seconds before carrying on and finishing this lap. This time both Eddie and Edyta cheered me on, shouting “Paul” instead of “David”. Nowhere on me did it say Paul, so I guess they’d misremembered my name after all these years and seeing my surname on Facebook. Oops!
Just after starting my fifth full lap I walked to get some water and then got running again, but did walk again briefly once I was around the corner, but tried to run as much as I could, as often as I could. I wasn’t sure if it was the monotony of the laps, or if I was genuinely tired. If I was, then that would be three half marathons in a row where I’ve tried to do my normal sort of half marathon pace and have then tired around the halfway point. All three were after I was ill following London Marathon however, so there was a small chance I just need more time. It was either on this lap or the next when I got lapped by the winner of the race for the first time, and then again on just as he was about to finish. Pretty sure that hasn’t happened before!
I did however get into a pattern of only allowing myself to walk at certain points of the lap: part that is parallel with Albert Bridge Rod, just after the Battersea Park Adventure, and then the first few metres of where the lake is. I was very disappointed that such a flat course was beating me like this, and no matter how I tried to motivate myself I just couldn’t push myself.
At around 10:55 I’d got just over a lap to go and got a text message which I read via my Garmin; it was enough to spur me on to try and get the remainder done as quickly as I could. I still walked a little, but I tried to keep it to a minimum, and was noticeably faster when I was running. On the last lap when I got around to the corner nearest to where I’d be leaving the park later I pushed on, trying not to walk any more. The support had died off a little now, but after ninety minutes of people running laps it’s not that surprising, they do need a break! It was a well marshalled course as well with people not just at the turns, but anywhere that could be considered a hazard too.
When I could see the finish I didn’t start to spring like I normally would, but pretty sure that I did unconsciously still sped up. I then finished in 1:32:39, and 133rd out of 684 finishers. Usually I’m somewhere in the top 5-10% of runners, but this time I’d made a complete mess of it. It was slightly slower than Leicester two weeks ago, even though this was a far flatter course. However I looked at it, I’d done badly. In terms of half marathons, I don’t have another now until MK Winter Half, but that being a week after a marathon it might not be pretty!