Only two weeks since my most recent half marathon race, I was back with Phoenix Running again: chasing after a medal made from LEGO. That was reason enough to enter this one. As I didn’t have my car with me it meant Carmen would once again have to drive is to Walton-on-Thames for the race.

Whilst the conditions were different, the route was the same - the Sunbury Lock route. We’d decided we’d run our own races this time as we’re getting further into marathon training. My training plan for this week was to do an easy run for 1hr50, so figured I’d just run at an easy pace, and make sure I run the entire distance.

Once I’d got the timing chip, I walked over to the starting mat, got my watch ready, and set off several minutes behind Carmen. It was certainly quieter on the course today, and it did feel warmer too. For a while the ground didn’t seem that bad really. The ground was hard, and I could spend my time taking in the surroundings for a change.

A little past the lock, the hard ground gives way to mud, and this varies quite a bit along the route. There were places with reasonably sized puddles, and areas where the mud was so churned up I’d jump over them when possible instead. Occasionally I’d slow down to go through a drier patch, but as the run went on I was less bothered about it and would just run through the mud.

I’m not a fan of running on mud though, and that’s why I don’t do cross country. I like to be able to predict what the ground beneath my feet is going to do. There were times I slid on the mud, but managed to remain standing at all times. As always, I was using road shoes.

It was nice seeing Carmen at various points along the way, and I think not wanting her to see me walking did keep me going far longer than I otherwise might have. The extra effort required to run on the mud was tiring, and by the end of the second lap I was starting to wonder if I’d manage to run the entire thing or not.

I slowed down at the turnaround points considerably more for the third lap, and found slipping in the mud to be harder work. I just needed to keep on going. However, not that long into my final lap I started to walk for a bit, then thought Carmen might be passing me in the opposite direction shortly, so got running again. I walked a few more times, but eventually I did realise that I’d not been overtaken by anyone today, even though I’d overtaken a number of people. I knew this didn’t really mean anything, and it’s not really a proper race, but I thought it’d be interesting to see how far up the results table I could get. This got me running again, and I managed to run for the last quarter lap to the finish.

I ran the bell, and handed back the timing chip to receive my LEGO medal. I sat in the pub assembling this whilst I waited for Carmen - she wasn’t that far behind really, and had decided to ‘only’ do a half today too due to the ground conditions, and the weather appearing like it was about to turn. It’d taken me 01:41:05 to complete a half marathon, which was a little faster than my plan had wanted, but was also around fifteen minutes slower than my PB. I was however the fastest person out 51 people doing a half marathon there.