Cardiff half marathon result

I ran the Cardiff half marathon today, hoping to go under 1hr30. My PB before today was 1hr31.07 (on this course, as it happens), so the goal was to PB first and go under 1hr30 second.

The weather was perfect, a little chilly first thing with a little bit of wind in parts, but nothing to really worry about. I met a friend of mine at the start and decided to run together, he was after a sub 1hr30 time too, so this seemed like a good idea. We positioned ourselves just behind the 1hr30 pace guy, the hooter went and the pace guy took off like a bat out of hell! He was going far too quick, so we let him go, knowing fine well that he would come back to us after a few miles.

My mate was dictating the pace (he had his Garmin on), we quickly caught up with the pace guy and after a few seconds of running at his pace we decided it was too slow and pushed on. The pace was good and felt comfortable, however after a few miles it didn't feel so comfortable! It wasn't fast, but felt a little too quick too early. Anyway, my mate (Ed) was still pushing the pace, so I decided to just sit in on this pace and see how it went. We got to the 10 mile marker well under 1hr30 pace and it was starting to hurt a little bit now. My mate said he was struggling a bit, but he still continued to push the pace on, still pushing hard. We got to the 11 mile point and I decided to see what he had left in the tank, I gritted my teeth, picked the pace up and he was gone. At this point I knew there was only about 13 or 14 minutes of pain left, so pushed on knowing that a PB was within my grasp.

I pushed a little too hard! The final mile marker was within sight and I was hurting. The voice in my head was saying "Dig in Whittle!". I tried to hold my form together and just keep moving at a reasonable rate, I knew the finish shute was just around the corner, "Not far now" came that voice again. I could see the finish line now and kicked the final 100m, stopping the clock on 1:28:06. I was not a pretty sight, snot, sweat, spit, etc everywhere! I had given it my all and managed to drag out a 3 minute PB.

Very pleased with the result, I couldn't have done it without Ed pacing me round those first 10 miles or so, thanks for that mate. A great end to the season, I can go away now and eat my own bodyweight in fast food - I think I deserve it!