Well I haven't posted for a few weeks, Warrington New Balance English Half Marathon didn't go well. I'm generally not very good at spending the night before a race in a hotel room, I'm usually a pretty good sleeper but seem to struggle with the combination of adrenaline before the race and unfamiliar surroundings. I slept badly before the Great North Run but this was much worse and I think I only got 2 or 3 hours. The race was early 9am and so I was up at 5.30 for a jog and breakfast.
We were greeted by a wet autumn morning but perfect conditions for running a half marathon. After a delayed start we got going and quickly sorted ourselves out into a small group of leading athletes. There were five of us in the group and we went through the opening mile in 5.03 and I didn't feel great. I knew the opening miles were supposed to be uphill but it was tougher than I had imagined. At 3 miles (15.19) I felt as though I was working really hard and in danger of getting dropped. Comapred with the GNR where I went through 5k in 15.04 I was feeling much worse. I knew that with a large gap behind me getting dropped was not an option and I had to hang on for as long as possible. It was pretty miserable stuff and I was dropped and got back on about 4 times before losing contact at 8 miles. The guys in the group starting racing each other as we turned to drop back down the hill and I lost ground, there was a point at about 9.5 where I felt I was making ground but I struggled badly in the last 2 miles, finishing in 66.36. I was pretty disappointed with the run, and reckon I was about a minute down on a normal day but on a positive note, if I'm running 66.36 on a bad day there is more in the tank.
Again I wore the New Balance RC769 and experienced no problems at all, I find them a little heavy but my legs seem to recover well after racing in them. I'm going to get a pair of RC205 from the US soon.
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