I’m absolutely buzzing to have hit 30 half marathons under my belt now and it was very fitting that it was also my first ever Ilkley Half Marathon as well.
It was an absolute scorching day, the race started in the morning but the temperature even then was around 20 degrees and by the time I hit the last 4 or 5 miles it was 25 degrees heat.
Although my finishing time of 1 hour 48 was still way off my all time half marathon PB of 1 hour 22, I was very pleased and elated even with this time as my last half marathon 2 months ago was the Leeds Half Marathon which I finished in 1:52:00. This really has boosted my confidence levels as it’s decent time improvement on only 2 months ago and it shows that all my dedicated training and running my training runs with wrist / hand weights is paying off. The bizarre thing is though regarding my time is that my GPS Fit Bit watch tracked me at 1:47 after 13.4 miles which is just over the half marathon distance and the course chip time gave me 1:48. I’m going to go with my Fit Bit but very strange. Same also happened at my last half marathon, my Fit Bit said I completed half marathon in 1:51 but my chip time was 1:52.
Going back to my result, I finished in 360th place out of over 2,000 runners but I am also pleased about my performances as although the Leeds Half Marathon route is one of the tougher commercial race routes and has a few big hills in there, I do feel this relatively undulating route is generally a tougher course overall and the heat was so intense, it shows that if in the right conditions I would probably be in the early 1:40s now, which is great as I have been in the 1:50’s time bracket a couple of years now which for me has been a little hard to take since I was a 1:20 to 1:30 bracket runner in the half marathon for many years. I guess those miles on the clock and all the years of football has taken a toll on my legs eventually.
My race plan was initially to mega pace it for first 2 miles at 8:30 minute miles but I was just under 8 minutes and I was able to keep that pace up for most of the race and my average by the end was 8:15. The last 4 miles in the heat was very intense and I hat to dig deep I must say but I always run my heart out.
I now push onto the next race which is a half marathon in August at Roundhay Park, which although some of it might be on the trails, I have a feeling a lot of it is on pathways and flat so I’m hoping for an improved time again fingers crossed.
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