Shakespeare Half Marathon - 26 April 2009...

Distance: 13.1 miles

In a time of...
hh:mm:ss
01:19:13

Finishing Position: 9
Number of finishers: 1821
Putting me in the top: 0.49%

It has to be said, I was very much looking forward to this race. But forget the buildup, for once I'll just talk about the race.

I was late to line up at the start as usual; it was a last minute push through the spectators and hop over the barrier to try and line up at the front of the field. I was positioned right at the very edge of the front row, meaning I'd have to hop around a traffic cone when the race started. Anyway, after what felt like an eternity of waiting the race was underway. I sped off alongside everyone else and immediately positioned myself behind a leading group that had formed within 100m. I had no intention of going off with these guys, although there were more in the group than I would have initially expected. The route took us a lap round the town centre, firstly passing my mother who'd placed herself strategically to cheer me on at the end of the starting straight, and again as we finished the first mile (completing the lap of the town centre), another quarter of a mile and I passed my younger sister who had managed to take a brief break for work to pop her head outside and cheer me on as I came past. This first mile felt effortless, and it was such a tremendous feeling to come back past the start line to the cheers of such a large crowd – if only there was the same support the whole way round! 1mile split, 5:38… a bit quicker than I'd have liked, but slower than last year, so it could've been a lot worse! Back passed mother again, who was cheering as always, I felt happy and very positive saying "coo-eee!" as I jogged on by.

Past Holy Trinity Church and through 'Old Town', over a bridge and down towards the Evesham Road. I can't really remember who was around me at this point, but I just continued at a steady pace. Passed the Stratford Racecourse and the first drinks stop – I don't think I took a drink and carried on along the road through Luddington. The hill at 4mi always gets the heart rate rising, though I seemed okay going up it, pace slowing a little but I didn’t lose any places, and may have even gained one.

The steady descent followed which I pushed a little harder down, grabbing a quick drink along the way. As we reached a little upwards kick in the road, I remember a guy come trotting past me, with an ungainly style, but too fast for me to want to stay with. Memories of the following section are somewhat hazy, though I remember the long drag up into Welford feeling more comfortable than previous years, and I was quite happy up the hill approaching 8mi. The steep descent always batters the quads, but seems like a good opportunity to make up any lost ground.

Reaching the greenway is always a mixture of emotions – on the one hand it seems like the final stretch towards the finish, but on the other hand it's monotonous and seems to last forever… It is, however, very flat – which suits me well, I seem to be quite good at finding a good pace and settling into a rhythm to maintain that pace. A runner had overtaken me earlier (before we'd joined the greenway) and I spent the entire duration of the greenway closing him down and passing. There may have been a few of us together at this point (I seem to remember a few others in my mind for some reason).

As we approached the end of the greenway, the point at which the Full Marathon runners split off to complete a second lap of the course, I made a conscious effort to break ahead of the others around me. Whilst it hurt like hell to push on knowing I had over a mile to go, it seemed to work as nobody chose to break with me. I left the greenway and passed the 12mi marker alone, joining onto the Severn Meadows Road – a brief on road section before turning back 180 degrees and heading back down towards the riverside.

As I reached the switchback, my increasing levels of fatigue and feeling the need to back off, I gave into the desire to look back at where my nearest rival was – it was my clubmate Connor Carson! The others whom I'd tried to break from weren't to be seen, but Connor was hot on my heels, and for the past 12mi I'd had no idea he was anywhere near me. Any contemplation of easing off was soon out the window – I simply couldn't let Connor catch me.

Joining the riverside path and, as with every other year, I felt I was almost finished; just a short burst along the riverside. But every year I forget it's much longer than you think, probably about half a mile, which is a huge amount when in your mind you're thinking there's about a quarter of a mile to go.

Conscious of Connor being on the chase I was pushing as hard as I could, but felt I was slowing more and more, I could feel my running form deteriorating with every step – the crowds began to become more and more dense and the cheers became louder, a glance over my shoulder and I couldn't see what kind of a gap I had, no idea whether this was because I'd managed to pull away from Connor, or that I'd simply failed to spot him through my hazy, exercise induced 'fuzzy-vision'. I passed my cheering family without the foggiest idea they were there and made it onto the finishing straight – picking up the pace slightly I finished and stopped immediately trying to catch my breath and not collapse in a heap.

The time wasn't what I'd hoped it would be, but then it never is at Stratford! A deceptively slow course I feel as each year I always fail to meet my expectations by around 2mins. Still, a new PB, a top 10 finish, and we won the team prize – I can't complain at that! The only minor downfall of the day was that although I'd beaten Connor across the finish line by 13 seconds, he'd started further back than me, and his chip time was in fact 1 second ahead of mine! D'oh!