Swindon Half Marathon 2009

Friday 10th & Saturday 11th October
Complete rest. No going to body pump or anything silly like that. Not that I was expecting to do all that well on Sunday, but I wanted my legs to be fresh and my enthusiasm level to be high (ok, high-ish) for the race.

Usual Saturday pre-race routine consisted of a trip to the cinema, the film this weekend was the excellent How To Lose Friends and Alienate People. I'd been looking forward to it for some time, and obviously any film with Kirsten Dunst and Megan Fox is going to get my vote, but it was very good indeed, very funny and a nice story line. Simon Pegg goes from strength to strength in my view, and I'm thinking if my book were to be made into a film, it would have to be a choice between him and James McAvoy to play the main protagonist. Tough one that.

Sunday 12th October

Anyway, back to the present day. I really wasn't expecting to get anything out of the race, especially with it being just a few days after coming back from holiday. I agreed to run it with Terry, which would make it more enjoyable and stop me going off too quickly.

It was certainly enjoyable running with Terry, but sadly it didn't stop either of us going off too fast. We were going at roughly 8-minute miles until we got to the hills at about 4 miles. Slowing down then was inevitable, and it was getting increasingly hot that day.

We did, however, stop and walk at most of the drink stations - I usualy try to keep running, but Terry finds it hard to run and drink at the same time. The short recoveries definitely helped, and we didn't lose too much time doing it.

The target time was under 1:50 but as it got hotter and hotter that became increasingly unrealistic. In the end all I cared about was finishing the run. I managed to stay with Terry almost the whole way, but I knew how hard the last mile was going to be and wasn't going to take any chances.

As it turned out, we were only about twenty seconds apart, and I was happy with my time of 1:51:35 given the conditions. It was disappointing not to have improved my time at the event in the last few years, but it did occur to me later that on each occasion I have always just come back from holiday and not been on top form.

Next year, could be different; most likely I'll go on holiday after the London marathon and be in better shape come the Swindon half in October. But I'm not going to think too far ahead yet; there are plenty of challenges over the next twelve months.