Archive: Windsor Half Marathon – 25 Sept 2005

A race report from the archives of an old blog. I ran my first Half Marathon with only two weeks notice after a neighbour pulled out at the last minute. It was one of those spur of the moment decisions I said yes to because, well, why the hell not? I recall being in fairly decent shape, all things considered, but I certainly hadn’t trained for it. Another case of “Kids, don’t try this at home!” Then again, this is still my PB time for the half.

Windsor Half Marathon

It was 20 degrees yesterday which I would call rather hot for the season. Or I would but I seem to have a memory of September always being quite hot. Admittedly, never quite 20 degrees hot but still.

Anyway, a friend and I drove down to Windsor where we joined 5000 people to do the Windsor Half Marathon. I’d like to say that another reason I haven’t been around much is because of the copious amount of training I’ve been doing for this race but that would be a lie and you know it. The truth of it is that I only agreed to do it two weeks ago after someone I know who had entered pulled out and offered me their place. I haven’t run more than about 10k all summer and this was twice as far.

The course, after discussing it with a mate who has run it regularly for the last four or five years (with the exception of this year owing to dodgy knees – such is the downside of pounding out the miles) is quite psychologically challenging. Although it takes place through the very scenic vistas of the Great Park, it’s very hilly. Not just the “here’s a steep hill, let’s run up it” hilly either. There were plenty of long, gradual inclines which, to be perfectly honest, are a nightmare. They’re not quite flat enough to run at normal pace and not quite steep enough to change down a gear. The last mile though, is the worst. You get to the 12 mile marker and it’s downhill from there onto the crowded Long Walk and the final straight to the finish line. Well let me tell you, that road never bloody ends. You can see the finish, you pick up the pace and think to yourself “I can do this, I can get this last mile done quick. Dig deep, dig hard – keep pushing!” But oh no, it’s not that simple. Like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the bugger doesn’t get any closer. It’s soul destroying. (I would like to take a moment to thank the group of young ladies who started booing me about a half a mile from the finish when I chose to walk for 10 seconds for shaming me into picking up my knees and legging it to the finish.)

Still, considering that this was 4.1 miles further than anything I’ve run in the last 16 years and that I haven’t trained for it, I more or less stuck to my race plan and came in at 1:49:48 (or thereabouts) which is about 8m 20 per mile – 20 seconds over what I was secretly aiming for.

Next week, the Kings Langley 10k.

UPDATE: According to the official site my time was actually 1:49:28 and I came 1117th out 4558 people. (To give you an idea of the numbers, the 117th placed fella finished in 1:29:55 – so a 1000 people finished within 20 minutes. Something to aim for next year!)