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On Sunday 6th June 2021, I took part in the Hertfordshire Half Marathon event. This was my first running race in 15 months. My last running event was in Feb 2020 when I did the Hemel 17 miler. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck followed by the lockdown. All running events had to be cancelled or postponed to a date according to the government’s permission. Some events were turned to virtual where runners did their own run and submitted their time to the event organiser via an app. The Herefordshire Half Marathon 2020 was supposed to take place in November. Due to the lockdown, they postponed the event to the date when they would be allowed to do so. At first, I thought this event would be postponed to November this year. Then completely out of the blue, I received an email from the organiser telling me that they would be allowed to hold this event on 6th June. It was such a positive news. June is usually a bit too warm for long distance running but hey I really wanted to give it a go. I still couldn’t believe I could finally take part in a real running event which is not “virtual” until I received the bib number and time-chip in the post.
So….. here we go…. Before I knew it, I was on the start line. It was quite surreal that I was physically standing on the start line with other runners. From the look of the carpark, the number of cars were probably about a quarter of the last time I was here in November 2019 – ie: from well over a thousand runners to just a few hundreds. To comply to the COVID social distancing, runners were split into many different waves to start with the fastest starting first and the slowest starting last. I put down my expected finishing time 2 hours 20 minutes as my training time is always over 2 and a half hours so I was pretty much at the back of the pack. Each runner had to keep 2 metre social distancing. For this reason, there was no congestion at all to start with. The spread of the runners was so sparse that I could hardly see any runners around me let alone touching them !!
The morning of the Hertfordshire Half Marathon was gorgeous albeit a bit on the warm side for running. I decided at last minutes to ditch my Helly Hansen long sleeved top and just wore my Comets running vest.
With such a long break from running events, I realised that I needed to stay focus and hopefully to maintain 10-minute mile pace. This would require a lot of mental and physical energy. I seemed to be able to do so on flat and downhill but not on uphill. At some points when I would let my mind wander, I noticed my pace slowed down, so I’d have to try to stay focused again otherwise I’d be running closer to 12-minute mile pace. Before the pandemic I used to take things for granted such as when I was in running events, no matter how beautiful the surroundings were, I didn’t take much notice and I’d just take more interest on my pace. However, this time I noticed my surroundings more and started to appreciate the country lanes and the nature around me. I kept thinking running events like this could get cancelled again at anytime if the government considers it’d be too dangerous to do so. The pandemic has taught me not to take things for granted and to cherish what we have at the moment because anything can be taken away from us anytime.
Somewhere between mile 10 and 11 during a long hill climb, my legs began to get jelly. At this point, my pace dropped to 14-minute mile which is pretty much a brisk walking pace. I didn’t stop. I kept pushing no matter how slow I was getting. The last mile was quite flat. In the past, the last mile was challenging because we had to run downhill for half a mile and then to run uphill all the way to the finish line. This year, they modified the route. The last mile was totally flat all the way the finish. Finally, after 2 hours 23 minutes, I finished the half marathon with an average pace of 10’57”. My time was probably at the very bottom of the results. Still, I wanted to return to the running scene. It was so so worth it to be able to take part in an actual event running alongside with other like-minded people.
I learned some things along the way by doing this event, and now I know I would need to put some plasters on my heels as I’ve got blisters on both heels. I also need to remember to drink water only shortly before the race as I kept rushing to the portaloo before the race. Fortunately, I still remember to charge my Garmin watch the night before and it was still going strong by the time I finished.
This event was very well organised by www.runthrough.co.uk. I think I will sign up the November event and I keep my fingers crossed it will go ahead.
I will be doing the St Albans Half Marathon this coming Sunday and will be doing the Milton Keynes Full Marathon on Sunday 27th June.