After last year, I decided I wasn’t going to do this race again unless they moved it back to March - a time of the year when it’s usually cooler. It hadn’t been fun last year doing it in such warm weather, and I didn’t want to risk a repeat of that. However, Carmen’s had done a workshop with some young people from work to design the medal and t-shirt for this year’s race, so I then thought I should enter anyway. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hot for a second year running, but if it was, then perhaps it’d be good training for the potentially hot marathon in Larnaca.

This was my first half marathon since Milton Keynes in May, and would be the first in a block of half marathons leading up to the aforementioned Larnaca marathon. So whilst this is typically a race I’d consider to be a goal race, this time I had no time goals, just finish with a consistent pace, and if possible, avoid walking.

Due to needing to take the train home, I had my backpack with me to leave at the baggage drop, and had to set off early due to my starting time being 08:30. We set off at 06:00, and got into London Bridge around 07:30. Whilst the toilets in the train station may seem like a good idea, they do get very busy quickly. After dropping my bag off, I went for an easy half mile warm-up run from Tooley Street to the other side of Tower Bridge. In just that short distance, at and such a slow pace for me too, I was already feeling a little too warm. It should have been a sign to start this race considerably slower than I normally would have.

I held back, trying to be towards the back of Wave A to avoid the temptation to run too quickly for the conditions. Dame Kelly Holmes started the race, before jumping into the pens to then run it as well. In the first mile my speed did creep up despite intentions, and it wasn’t until Limehouse Link tunnel that as the 1:30 pacer rocketed off on the down hill part, I realised I didn’t want to go too quickly and eased off.

It was noticeably a few degrees warmer in the tunnel than before it, but it wasn’t as bad as last year, and this time there wasn’t the smell of fumes either. I deliberately didn’t look at my watch once, and just kept at a steady pace that I felt was probably going to be around 07:30/mi - slower than I’d normally want. I thought that with the slower pace it’d make the eventual climb out of the tunnel, just after mile 2, would be easier. It wasn’t too bad, but I was already starting to feel so warm.

At Canary Wharf it reminded me of how at this point last year I’d started walking after having struggled with the heat more. I remembered how I joked that my race had gone caput at Cabot Square. It became a double edged sword - it made me start thinking about whether I was that tired now, and that can have a psychosomatic effect of actually feeling tired because I think I should be. On the other hand though, knowing I’d ‘failed’ there previously was also a driving force that kept me moving on.

I kept going for about another mile before I started to walk, just as I reached the cobblestones. They're as much of a pain as I remembered, and many runners ahead of me ran on the narrow, smooth pavement for as long as they could before it disappeared and they were forced to run on the cobbles.

I walked quite a few times after that before even getting halfway, but made sure I ran across Tower Bridge without walking. I kept my eye out for Carmen as well, just in case she was making her way to the start now.

It'd gotten very warm now, and it wasn't long before I started to see runners on the side of the road, being tended to by paramedics. The first of the 'hose stations' wasn't working either, so people were relying on getting from one water station to the next to keep cool.

Eventually there were some firemen with a hose that were helping to keep people cool, and a little after that one of the official hose stations was actually working okay. Whilst I did want to cool off, I also wanted to avoid getting my feet wet in case I got blisters, so was careful.

Whilst it seemed to take forever to reach, I eventually crossed the final bridge and was getting close to the Cutty Sark, and the finish line. Although my mind was telling me I could do with walking a bit more before the finish, I carried on running and sped up as I got closer to the finish and overtook a few people. I crossed the finish line in 1:41:47, in position 2,488 of 16,397 finishers. It was about a minute faster than last year, but it was still a considerably slow race for me.

From the finish line at the Cutty Sark, you work your way around a path to where you can collect some water, and lucozade (I skipped that), medals are handed out, and then to the baggage collection. Mine was pretty quick to get, and then made my way across the road to the maritime museum where you can collect a t-shirt if you requested one.