I had originally been meant to be doing the Bath half marathon but had decided to opt for Reading in a bid to beat my personal best as it was known as a fast course.
So leaving the beauty of Bath until next year I headed west a la Pet Shop Boys and arrived in Reading in time to pick up my race number at the football stadium and then filling up on a spot of lunch.
On the Saturday night before the race I met up with the group that I met whilst climbing Kilimanjaro back in August of last year. It was fun to see them all again although I had to miss out on the copious amounts of sambuca and other alcohol that they were enjoying and merely top up on water and carbs if I were to be in any shape to beat my PB the next day.
I got a fairly early night before heading to the football stadium the next morning for the start of the race at 10:15am. It was a rain free morning which was great; however it was still fairly chilly. I still find the build up to races quite difficult when it's cold as it is hard to know when to finally take off your tracksuit and head to the start pens in order to get your place. It's always a toss up between staying warm for as long as possible versus being cold and having a place nearer the front of the pen!
I opted for somewhere in the middle and went to the start line about 50 minutes prior to the gun start time. It was freezing but I kept semi warm by doing a little jogging around the pen. There was fortunately a set of portable urinals nearby so I went in a couple of times to use them with the added bonus that it was warm inside. If I didn't run the risk of looking like weird I would have stayed in there longer!
Once the pen filled up it got warmer as the body heat surrounds you...sounds gross but was actually really quite welcome!
So the gun fired and off we went! I knew there would be a lot of elites in the race trying to beat their time too so I tried not to keep too near the front of the field as I would quickly burn out.
Prior to the race I had set a target of 6 minute miles which would then allow me to beat my current best of 1 hour 19 minutes 22 seconds.
Mile 1 and 2 I kept this pace and I only fell slightly behind on mile 3 due to a large hill which of course slowed me. As the laws of physics have taught us what goes up must come down so in mile 4 I more than made up for the slower previous mile as the downhill aided my speed.
The route is not the most scenic; however the miles seemed to be ticking by at the required intervals and with some personal support along the way about halfway through I felt good.
As I passed 10 miles at the 1 hour mark I was starting to feel excited that I could beat my PB. However just at the 11 mile marker we entered a long straight road (the glamorous A33) which I knew continued right up to the stadium for the finish. This is quite daunting on it's own when you see such a long stretch ahead of you but there was also a mammoth head wind which at this stage in the race really made it even harder on the already tired legs.
I pushed through thinking that I still would be in with a shot even if the last two miles were done in 6.5 minutes. At 12 miles I was just within it and only one mile to go....
I carried on up the last hill to the stadium and went as fast as I could past the 800m to go, 600m to go (somehow missed the 400m one) and the 200m to go signs until I was in the stadium for the last slog.
I crossed the line and was done! I looked at my watch and it was 1 hour 19 minutes and 14 seconds but I knew I started my watch a few seconds after crossing the start line so for now I was still please to be sub 80 minutes and would just have to wait a few hours until the official results were out and I could see if I had in fact beaten my PB.
Post lovely warm shower back at the hotel I had some lunch, a can of Coke and a Starbucks. It tasted nice.
So the official results came out later that night when I was lying on the sofa feeling a little tender and stiff in the legs. I came 200th out of 16,500 and a time of 1 hour 19 minutes and 21 seconds.
A new PB by 1 second! Goal achieved! Woo hoo!
Breakdown of the race was:
5km split: 19 minutes 2 seconds (exactly the same as my 5km
race in Tokyo in 2012)
10km split: 36 minutes 31 seconds (a new PB versus the 36m 36s in Brighton last November)
15km split: 56 minutes 9 seconds (quicker than
the November 2012 15km race in Istanbul which I did in 1h 15s)
20km split: 1 hour 15 minutes 18 seconds (quicker than the May 2012 Brussels 20km which I did in 1h 23m)
Some pictures below:
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