Jog On...

  My last race of my 2011 calender has arrived and I can still remember writing my first report of 2011 back at Cardiff Try-a-Tri. The weather up to the race had been wet so the ground was already soft so I was hoping the sun would be out for my first off road half marathon. Lucky for me it was, and it wasn't to cold either, an ideal day for running. I arrived at the start line in time to see the ultra marathon runner leave and there were about 30 runners, They have a long day ahead of them as their race was about 35 miles, I'm hoping to get a marathon under my belt in 2012 but that depends on how much training I can get done in the new year, but back to today's race. It was easy and simple to check in at the race, picked up my wristband and timing chip and there were some free samples of Cliff bar so I helped myself to them for after the race as I didn't fancy eating something now that would effect my race and make me stop for the loo half way round the course...

I had a master plan for this event and I stuck to it all the way and it worked out for me really well. I submitted a time of sub 01.40 and this was my aim, to finish the event at the 01 40 00 marker which meant I had to do an average pace of 7.30 min miles. Easy enough so you thought... But I through a spanner in works but stopping to do a wee at mile 5 on the side of the road. The event was very popular, I was one of 18000 runners, at the start I was taken over by a giraffe and a Darlek to start with. I was keen not to let the adrenaline kick in and stick to the pacing I had chosen for the duration of the race, it definitely paid off. I had loaded up on my pre race meal of porridge and lucozade sport, I forced it down as my nerves had kicked in after 20 minutes of waking up, I find this happening most of the time before races, but I do carry on putting myself through it so I must like it. I did some light stretches at the start line, my normal warm up strategy and drank a li...