Having had a pretty ropey week I rounded my dismal race preparation off by failing to get much sleep at all the night before.
Even my secret weapon of a vicks nasal inhaler snuck into the gel belt was not going to save me today.
As he heat ratched up for the traditional St. Albans Half scorcher we made our way into the runner's village. At the entrance we were met by an efficient person who handed us bag tags (he'd already clocked us and put the numbers on the tags) and pointed us at the bag drop. Took a while to find Dave and quick set strides were all that was between us and the start. I went way back (I thought) but there were 2500 of us to it was difficult to see where the elite stopped and the mortals began. Picked my spot and went in far too close to the front. Had people going past all the way around.
Held steady on the first couple and took the extra speed on the first sharp decent from 2-3 and really was not comfortable. Was feeling hot and decided to back of and not push too hard. Struggled up the mile six hill, but recovered down the other side a bit and consoled my self that I was still holding sub 8 min mile pace.
Struggled through to nine miles and at this point there were some people on the pavements. A lady in a red straw hat shouted at me "You should have used Vaseline mate!". I was thinking that an odd comment as I had, then I glanced down and saw the lovely new v10 running top our running fource sponsors have given me had been stained with a red spot. Just like a cartoon character that only falls when he realises there is no longer any ground under him at the sight of the blood those nipples start to hurt. Metal note to self, that's why you have all those wee round plasters.....
False dawn as I pick up the pace through mile nine to be whacked at mile ten, by now I am walking through the drinks stations to on board as much water as possible. Gel timing was ok with one at 45mins, 1h02 and final one at 1h15. Keep holding the sub 1:40 though and do the sums, still ok even with a couple of slow ones.
As we came to the last hill before the mile decent to the finish there was a guy shouting position. According to him I was 209th at that point.
I pushed on and thought I could get into the top 200, but everyone else had that idea as well and I got past four before glancing at the Garmin, 6:25min mile and I was very unlikely to keep that up. Settled for staying in the bunch I was with and had to did deep to get through the park and was over taken by someone looking very strong in a blue top. Blue top had me on his shoulder as we accelerated into the finishing straight, I saw my family cheering me on and my kid shouted "Go on dad, you can take him!" so I tried. He responded and we both tanked it to the line over taking several others who were pretty surprised to see not one but two blokes screaming past them. The other guy was simply faster, but I gave him a good run for his money and he came to find me after the race to shake my my hand!
Oh yeah, 1h 38min and 1second chip time and came 186th. Dave was 35th in 1h26m and Ken was 1h49m. Wonder where Paul was? The thought of him behind me would have been the only thing to have made me go any faster.
Last thought. Does the desert I had at Cafe Rouge remind anyone of anything?
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