Smashed It!

2:06:24

Never even thought I could deliver a time any where near that, especially on a hot day, but on the day it all came together. I thought my target of 130 min, 2 x my age at recent birthday (65), was ambitious and I beat it by over 3 minutes.
It was hard work, especially the last 2km when I seems to be forcing my legs to found power. I did manage a speed up on the last 200m but no way could I transition to even a slow sprint. Still, I crossed the line healthy and happy though with feet that felt on fire. 

Celebration

I had arranged to meet my support team, wife and daughter, at St John's Gardens a little way off the finish line and quiet to get my stretches done and a walk down. After meeting we heading down to the Caste field Basin and passed a very pleasant time with a couple of beers and an excellent burger off the BBQ.

Training History (summarized)

My training had started in early August 2017 working up to the Wilmslow 10k at the end of November but my plan for the Half Marathon specifically was drawn up on spread sheets from January 1st 2018. After the 10k I only did one gym session and a parkrun through December before a long lazy holiday. After Christmas I was starting from 3km and building back up to parkrun to start with.
My plan ran on 5% increase on what was to become my long run each week. The recommendation tends to be max 10% but as I was to discover, holidays, injuries and sickness knock weeks out of the schedule and the 5% plan allowed catch up.


For a long time I did three sessions per week, a treadmill followed by a swim and two runs, one always less than 5k but the other eventually growing to several miles. As the mileage grew beyond around 14km, time became more of an issue and I found I was over training and getting minor injuries. Eventually I dropped the gym sessions and concentrated on two runs per week with the longer run eventually reaching 12 miles. As described in earlier posts I experimented with walk breaks, gels, toilet breaks and pace.
I discovered at above 10 miles that upper leg strength was an issue and began to add squats to my routine. I'm glad I did and would start sooner if I do another one as it is my thighs that are the remaining pain 36 hours later, especially going up stairs.

Would I do it again? 

Would I do it again?  Unfortunately, Yes! Though I did miss being a part of the massive event that the Great Run Manchester 10K is; though support was great on the Half Marathon with all those lovely people who lined parts of the route, there is no doubt that the 10K has more excitement about it.

Sponsorship

Thank you to my neighbours and friends who joined in raising money for St. Ann's Hospice which encouraged me on in the later stages of training when it was becoming hard work and requiring investment in time out on the road. We raised over £350 for this great organisation.


You can still donate here:

Running for St. Ann's Hospice in memory of Margaret Donovan (Mum) and Sheila Waddington.