Sunday 21st October 2018
The Stroud Half Marathon continues to be one of the longest standing half marathon events in the UK having entered its 38th anniversary this year. I love Stroud Half Marathon. Apart from illness or injury, I don’t think anything can stop me from doing this race including a trip to Barcelona. It happened in 2012 when John went to do a hiking event in Barcelona while I did the Stroud Half Marathon. It happened again this year when the Barcelona Hiking Festival took place on the same weekend as the Stroud Half. I chose the latter. What I like about the Stroud Half is its generally flat course. For the entire 13.1 miles, there is only one gentle hill climb between mile 6 and 7.
An incredible turnout with over 2,000 runners filled the start line with a long sea of people. Despite the freezing cold weather early in the morning before the start, the temperature was creeping up as soon as the sun went up. I initially put my gloves on but I made a last dash of decision to take them off just before we started. I kept my Halley Henson under my Comets vest. I felt really warm after a few miles in. I didn’t want to stop to take off the layer as it would distort my time so I just carried on. I managed to keep the visibility of the 2-hour pacer. It was really really hard. I kept pushing but succumbed to the harsh truth that I was not strong enough to keep pushing. As soon as my brain gave up, my body followed. I let the 2-hour pacer out of my sighting by about mile 3. I then glanced my watch and it showed my first 3-mile split of 28+ minutes. It was within my target of sub 10-minute mile. Although I had lost the 2-hour pacer, I didn’t feel too upset. But considering I still had a substantial number of miles left to run, I wasn’t sure I would be able to hang on to sub-10-minute mile pace for the rest of the 10 miles.
Between mile 6 and 7, there is a very long stretch of gentle uphill (the only uphill in the entire race). As soon as I turned to the bottom of that hill climb, I spotted the 2-hour pacer again on middle of the hill. I kind of worked it out he must be about 2+ minutes ahead of me. It was really a confidence booster to spot the 2-hour pacer again after losing him in mile 3. Although I could never overtake him as he was way way ahead of me, once I realised that I was only a couple of minutes away from 2 hours, I picked it up and tried to narrow the gap. My legs definitely felt the fatigue of this pace as I didn’t put into sufficient training due to work, training courses and exams. The 2 miles around the industrial estate between mile 9 and 11 was quiet with the runners very sparse and no spectators. These 2 miles click off without much fanfare. When we emerged back to the main road towards mile 11, the live band was playing music and the spectators were chanting. With only 2 miles left, I was still able to keep sub 10-minute mile pace. By then I really didn’t want to look at my watch until after crossing the finish line. I finished in 2:05’58” and my split was 9:34” per mile. The pacer had definitely helped me shave a couple of minutes off. For full results, please visit:
https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/stroud-half-marathon-2018-results-2132634
I still haven’t totally given up the hope to finish sub 2 hours in Stroud like those good old years. I just need more training, a lot more training!
The Barcelona walk next year will take place in mid-October which means I can go to Barcelona to do the walk as well as running the Stroud Half.
