Lady Godiva Half Marathon - 22 October 2006...

Distance: 13.1 miles

In a time of...
hh:mm:ss
01:41:36

Finishing Position: 291
Number of finishers: 1712
Putting me in the top: 16.9%

After a good result at the Kenilworth Half two weeks prior to this event I was expecting this race would go even better. Having finished Kenilworth feeling good I felt I could push myself harder and should be aiming to further beat my Half Marathon PB.

It was a strange event – I was living in Coventry whilst studying at Coventry University and can’t ever remember seeing the streets as quiet as when I walked myself to the start area this fresh October Sunday morning. As I neared the start line I soon found the mass of other competitors - something that for some reason gives your mind and body a massive lift to say “it’s race day!”.

I changed into my kit and lined up at the start, set off onto the Coventry ring road and did the customary first ½ mile of dodging the fun runners who had started too far forwards, then settled down into a steady pace. I’d planned to aim for 7:15 min/mile for this race to give me a PB just under 01:35:00. Looking back perhaps that was a little ambitious, but off I went anyway. I stuck to the planned pace and started to flag from around mile 4, it was then I realised I’d gone off too fast and had to just hang on as best I could for the remainder of the race. I felt worse and worse as the race went on and I simply had no energy left as I neared the last mile – I was almost sure that I could walk as fast as I was running! 400m to go and the sound of the crowd at the finish lifted me no end, I even managed a bit of a sprint finish, gaining a good few positions in the process, though I knew my time was not what I had wanted, I was pleased to see it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. Six and a half minutes behind my somewhat optimistic planned finish time, 01:41:36 was my third and slowest half, but a great event none-the less. Without doubt I’ll be back in 2007 to settle my score with the course.