Reading Half Marathon 2008

I was well rested and reasonably optimistic ahead of the Reading half marathon. I knew to get a PB I would need to have a good day, but as it turned out, I had anything but that.

I drove up to the race with Clare, a friend from the track, and a friend of hers. Again, it is always nice to have some company at these events. At the lucozade stand we picked up our pace bands and both decided to aim for 1:45. Before long we dropped off our bags, did the last minute preparations and headed for the start line.

I started off at what I thought was a good pace, but the hill in the second mile slowed me down and after 3 miles I was already 40 seconds behind schedule. However, I had a much more pressing concern; I had a pain in my left achilles heel, which was (I assume) a result of pushing myself a little too hard on the last few reps of my track session. I tried to concentrate on just enjoying the event - not the most scenic route but the crowd support was fantastic and I always love being part of such a big group of runners.

I still seemed to be making good progress after 7 or 8 miles (it was hard to judge where I was at most of the time due to mile markers being too well hidden for me) but after about 9 miles I was in quite a lot of pain. I think I had changed my running gait to protect the heel and had done some damage to my calf muscles, where I now had a stabbing pain. I slowed right down because I couldn't maintain a decent pace and at one point stopped and tried to stretch it out - to no avail. People were flying past me in the last few miles which was just rubbing salt into the wound. I was limping badly and crying from the pain.

At about mile 12 my friend Jenny passed me (I expected her to be ahead of me all the way but somehow I passed her at mile 8) and urged me to stay with her. I tried, but as soon as I did the pain became unbearable. All I wanted to do at that stage was finish the race.

The finish couldn't come soon enough and eventually I limped across the line in a time of 1:51:04 - six minutes slower than I had hoped for. To be honest, without the injury a time of 1:47 or 1:48 would have been more realistic given the course but it was a horribly painful disappointment.

I wish I knew why I seem to keep having this kind of bad luck at big events, this was almost a carbon copy of the Bristol half marathon in 2007 when my hamstring went after 10 miles, except a fraction slower and a lot more painful.

I had put plenty of beer and wine in the fridge the previous day for a celebration; I still drank it, and had a chicken tikka massala for dinner, but it was more a case of drowning my sorrows than celebrating. I just hope that things are a great deal different after the Bath half marathon in two weeks' time.