On Sunday 12th November, John and I did the Grand Union Canal Half Marathon Autumn Series.
After a dreadful run on the previous Sunday in the Regents Park 10K in which I only managed to finish in 59’01” (I was so disappointed as I had no illness or injury. I was truly aiming for 55 or 56 minutes ie: about 9-minute mile pace but I failed to do so), my level of confidence sank to the lowest point. During the week prior to the half marathon, I only did 2 10k training runs. On the race day morning, I knew I wasn’t going to do a good time because: (1) the Grand Union Canal is not a fast course with a very narrow towpath and we have to run up and down several times to cross the canal to the opposite side; (2) I had not had enough training to take me back to the fitness level since my bout of flu in September.
I hasten to add that this race was very well organised by Purple Patch with water stations every 2 miles and with plenty of marshals. We drove to the finish in Watford and were ferried to the start in Uxbridge by coach. The bus journey took about 25 minutes. It was a bitterly cold morning. Fortunately, it was dry. The PA system was blasting out some very catchy tunes. I was moving my body along with the beat and it really helped warm me up.
The race started bang on time at 10am with the first wave of runners who are fast starting first. I was on wave 3 and John was on wave 5. As soon as I started, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to push sub 10-minute mile. I was already overtaken by dozens of runners in the first couple of miles. I could only manage just over 10-minute mile pace in the first few miles. The canal towpath was very muddy. I just couldn’t bear treading on them. I opted to run beside them (all of them). Yes, this had slowed me down but who cares. I was already slow. By mile 8, I couldn’t maintain 10
-minute mile pace anymore. I had to accept the 11-minute mile pace that appeared on my TomTom which was very disheartening.
We finally came off the canal and heading to the Cassiobury Park after 12 miles but it doesn’t mean the final mile is easy. Although the terrain is all smooth tarmac, it was mostly uphill until the finish. Straddling the outskirts of Cassiobury Park, I could see and hear the commotion of the finish line. Frustratingly, the course took the runners to run around half of the park first before turning right to the finish line in order to bulk out the distance to make up 13.1 miles. Had there been not plenty of marshals to direct the runners, I could have easily dashed straight to the finish and cut short for half a mile or so but I would have felt very much like a fraud. I did covered the entire 13.1 miles. No cheating. I only managed in 2:16’37”. John finished in 2:32’14”.
I then collected the finisher’s medal, bottle of water, a banana. I am particularly impressed with the design of the medals. This year marked the 10th Anniversary of the Grand Union Canal. The organiser put up 2 races with one in April and one in November. We signed up for both races. In April when I got my finisher’s medal, I was thinking hmmm… what a funny shape! Then when I got my finisher’s medal this time, it all made sense. The 2 medals can be joined together to form one big medal. Nice !