Cardiff half marathon today!

I did the Cardiff half marathon this morning as my final race of the season. I had aimed for a time of 1:31 originally (7 min/mile pace), but having not trained properly for the last 3 weeks due to work commitments and getting a cold, my revised plan was to go somewhere near my current PB time of 1:33:50-something.

The Cardiff course is very flat, and apart from certain sections being open to some windy conditions, it is the place to race to get a PB. The south Wales wind didn't let me down and it was indeed a bit windy in places, however apart from that it was overcast and cool - perfect weather conditions really. There was the usual nervousness whilst waiting alongside 8,000 others for the gun to go, and to be honest I was pleased when it went, let's get on with the suffering I thought.

Even though I thought 7 min/mile pace would be too quick for me, I decided to just go for it. What the hell? My race "plan", if you can call it that, was to go at 7 min/mile pace for the first 10 miles (if I was able to) and then hang in for the last 3.1 miles. So that's exactly what I did. I felt pretty good up to 10 miles and went through in exactly 70 minutes - bang on schedule. I knew the next bit was going to be tough.......and I was right! It was now hard to stick to 7 min/mile pace, but I knew if I was to HTFU I could come home with a new PB. This is where the mental side kicks in, I knew it was "only" 3 miles to go, so broke it down into 1 mile blocks and just aimed to run each mile at a time and at my goal pace.

It was now really hard work, my feet were sore and my muscles ached, but as I was ticking off the miles (and passing loads of people) I realised I was still on race pace and only had a mile to go. Roughly 7 minutes of pain left! I could see some guy up ahead who was racing in a lime green tri suit (he'd passed me a the 3 mile point) and decided he was my target man, I had to catch this guy before the finish shoot, that was my mission! I dug in and surged ahead (not much of a surge really) and caught the lime green fella with about 200m to go. I sat on his shoulder for a few seconds, caught my breath, composed myself and then looked over at him. At the same time he looked over at me. There was about 100m to go now. We both knew it was time, we didn't say anything, no need to, just a simple nod to each other......and we were off! We both launched into a sprint and all that mattered now was that I beat the lime green machine (my new nickname for him!). 50m to go...20m...10m.....and we were over the finish line! A new PB of 1:31:04 and I am well pleased. After a long hard season and a few trials and tribulations in the last 3 weeks, I can honestly say that I couldn't have asked for a better race. Time to chill out now for a couple of weeks (going to Cyprus on holiday!), then analyse my season and plan for 2009. Ironman Austria will be my focus for next year, so it looks like I'll be putting the miles in big time for that! And if you were wondering......the lime green machine was left in my dust! Train smart all.