Stevenage half marathon - November 1st 2009
I woke to find a very grey, wet and windy Stevenage on Sunday morning and my first thought was to go back to bed. However i have signed up for tougher challenges than 13 miles in the rain.
Due to the weather my warm up consisted of a bit of stretching in a corridor. Still it was warm and i did meet a friend who i used to play football with at Knebworth 5 or 6 years ago.
The course is a two lap route away from Ridlins running track, towards Fairlands Valley where you have a short lap first time around before heading towards Stevenage Borough FC before again turning back towards the running track once more. The course uses the superb cycle lanes which i never really appreciated when i lived in Stevenage, these allow so muchy freedom to runners cyclists walkers amd general safety to kids as there are subways under roads.
I must akso mention the runners that i had the privilage to run with on lap 2, there were 3 other, Virgin Mac man, a Harlow runner and Clare from Ware. I know clare's name as it was on the back of her vest. I was happily using the many hills as a training aid, before taking it easy on the down or flatter sections, Clare did comment on this after the race was finished and i thanked them all for helping me round.
My pace felt slower than Maidstone two weeks ago and i put that down to tougher conditions, however i was surprised when i crossed the finish line which followed 400m around the fantastic track with the clock showing 1 hour 40 and so many seconds. I have since learned my chip time and i have been given a time of 1 hour 40 and 1 second.
This is the fastest i have ever ran over this distance, by over 2 minutes and was over 6 minutes faster than Maidstone.
A summary of my October training results and feelings will be posted soon.
Thank you for reading
