Kenilworth Half Marathon - 26 September 2010...

Distance: 13.1 miles

In a time of...
hh:mm:ss
01:14:08

Finishing Position: 2
Number of finishers: 567
Putting me in the top: 0.35%

My second attempt at writing this report, since my computer crashed before 'autosave' had a chance to kick in.

Warwickshire County Half Marathon Championships, sounds quite impressive and important doesn't it? Well I suppose it is, but at face value it's just another race. Having not raced a half marathon since around this time last year (Birmingham Half Marathon 2009 - 1:16:37), I was keen to see what I could manage. Knowing the Kenilworth course wasn't a fast one, I was still hoping for a PB, ideally sub 1:15, and sub 1:14 would be a dream. In terms of position, I knew I had a chance of being somewhere near the front, but it'd very much be a case of seeing who turned up on the day.

The race started at a moderate pace, and I hung close to Gary Payne, a seasoned veteran who is able to pace a race fantastically. One guy edged ahead on his own - part of me was anxious to chase him, getting more and more nervous as he edged away, but I was able to reassure myself and stay in the group 10-15 metres back. The gap to first place soon closed and it wasn't long into the race that a group of three of us were alone and leading ahead of the pack; myself, Gary Payne, and one other runner who wasn't a familiar face in local races.

I felt comfortable and well within myself on the flats and gentle descents, but had to dig in a bit on the inclines to stay with the other two. I sat behind the others on the climbs and tried to shelter if the winds picked up, but generally I lead the way for many of the miles. 4miles had soon passed and I'd told myself to split the race into three distinct sections - 5mi easy, 4mi tempo/threshold effort, 4mi with whatever was left in the tank. Essentially this meant start easy, run strong in the middle section of the race, and then pick it up in the latter stages. The first section passed soon enough, and only minor fatigue started to set in during the second phase of the race.

Approaching 8miles there was a 90 degree right hand turn, which lead into a steady downward slope... I seemed to effortlessly open up a gap at this point and later heard from the other two guys that they felt I'd really picked up the pace as we turned the corner - bizarre since I felt I'd ran consistently. Had I have known then I'd have attacked a bit harder and really opened up a gap!

This unintentional gap was sufficient to drop Gary Payne from the group, and after a short while the other runner had closed the gap and it was inevitably going to be the two of us battling it out for the win. We seemed to be very progressively picking up the pace, running stronger and faster as each half mile passed by. Knowing my legs were tiring I felt I needed to do something, and with a climb approaching I decided it would be my breaking point. I was struggling and knew that I'd be doing well to maintain the same pace to the finish, but to win I needed to break the other guy. I surged on the climb, with tired legs, but the other guy came with me... I continued to push and could feel my legs getting heavier, but alas, I couldn't break away. Perhaps I was a bit weak mentally here, but I conceded that I didn't have any more to give on top of that, and that if that couldn't break him, then there wasn't anything I could do. My tired and heavy legs eased back as the other runner surged ahead with a little over a mile to go.

Knowing my position (second) was safe, I found it hard to push myself to the limit, though I did push to maintain a strong pace. 1st place was continuing to open up a gap and despite my best efforts the gap was never getting any smaller.

I cruised (...in discomfort, with weary legs...) the final mile or so home for 2nd place. In a time of 1:14:08, I was very happy... I'd ran my best race, paced it well, and couldn't have done any better - I was beaten by a better runner and was happy to have been - I was much happier to have finished 2nd in a time close to 1:14 than to have ran without competition to a 1:15:xx time.

As if the satisfaction of finishing 2nd wasn't sufficient, it soon became apparent that the race winner wasn't from Warwickshire, and therefore, whilst he was the overall race winner, he wasn't eligible for the County Championships... which meant li'l old me was awarded the title.

Richard Simkiss - 2010 Warwickshire County Half Marathon Champion... I like it!