Wilmslow Half Marathon

If London Marathon is my A race this spring the Wilmslow Half was my B race. A big local event (about 4000 runners) on a fast, rural course with loads of club mates running this was not to be missed.

The forecast looked dubious with wet and windy conditions predicted but on the day it was fine with quite a lot of sunshine and only a few showers.

After a short warm up I located my club mates and we agreed to run 6:45 miles until mile 10 when it would become a race. I was the only one to have broken 90 minutes before so the hope was that I would pace them all to a sub 90.

After a nice steady first mile of 7:05 we settled into a rhythm of banging out 6:42 miles time after time! This pace felt very comfortable, no doubt aided by the fact that the first half of the course is slightly downhill.

We went through halfway in about 44:30. This is 1:29 pace but the second half does contain hills!

At about 7 miles some club mates were spectating from a pub and the delightful photo below was the result:

As you can see I was having a lot of fun although Frank on my right doesn't seem too happy.

After mile 7 the hills kicked in and we had three slightly slower miles of about 6:50. At some point in these three miles Frank dropped off so it was down to four Bramhall Runners.

At the 10 mile marker (reached in just over 68 minutes) I sensed that my club mates were struggling and I upped the pace slightly. My last 3 miles were 6:30, 6:40 and 6:30. By the time I reached the 12 mile marker I knew that I would get under 1:29 for the first time and wondered if I might get under 1:28. If I hadn't ran wide so much I think I might have but as it was my Garmin measured my run as 13.19 miles and despite doing the last 200 metres at sub-6 pace my time was 1:28:23.

I then waited to see if my club mates would get under 90 minutes and thankfully 3 of them did. Frank probably paid the price for racing a parkrun the day before.

I am very pleased with my PB and especially with how comfortable 6:45 pace felt for 9 miles. In my next Half Marathon I can confidently aim for a sub 1:28.

With regards to marathon pace I should probably aim for 3:10 but I don't want to risk blowing up in the last 6 miles so I think I will aim for 3:15 and see what is in the tank at mile 20.