the rain came to a ceasefire for the duration of the 4 villages half marathon only to return after we had finished racing. i drove down with brian o'reilly and rob mcgrath,its been 4 years since i ran a 1/2 and 7 years since i ran this race. 7 years ago it snowed the night before and we ran the whole race on a soft carpet of white snow,that year i ran ashurst beacon fell race the day before running the 4 villages,i ran 83 mins. This year i was running on fresh but 7 year older legs !
at the end of the preston 10 i got a bad muscle tear in my calf ,so this was my first serious race back.
the saturday before i ran 23 miles with rob mcgrath and he gave me a very hard time for the first 15 miles before he faded. so i knew he might get the better of me here.
conditions were mild but we had a blustery wind to contend with.
i set off at 6.04 pace and ran with a group that was going for 79 mins, i did not feel very comfortable but hoped i would get better as i warmed up. at about 5 miles i started to feel strong and started pushing forward,this lasted to about 7 miles at which point i could feel a slow build up of lactic acid in my muscles.
the route takes you along a gentle roller coaster ride through the quite country roads of Dunham on the hill,Little Barrow,Mouldsworth,Manley and Alvanley.between 8 and 10 miles there is a steady uphill then mostly downhill to the finish, total climbing = 714 ft
it was at about 10.5 miles when gerry came steaming past me, followed shortly after by rob.
i did all i could to hold rob but this guy was really motoring ! both gerry and rob set off at a more conservative pace and i was now paying the price of my faster start.the miles ticked off real fast and all of a sudden i was sprinting in to the finish with the clock showing 81.35.
rob ran his fastest 1/2 as a vet 40 and said he was more than happy.
first time 1/2 marathon runner brian was very pleased to finish in 92 mins a good sign for his london attempt in april.he finished looking
very fresh with a massive smile on his face.
News update from Brian
boyd park was very happy with his run, and got a pb.
phil dean felt he ran out of steam at 10 miles, but just tried to dig in for the last 3.
anne wasn't very happy with her time - she hadn't run a half for a long time and hadn't felt up for it today.
by the way, i don't know if sam howard ran today, but she did run the fell race yesterday. results here - http://www.ukresults.net/2008/ashurst.html
this was an excellent race,very well organized with a interesting route and it was a fantastic build up race for brian,rob and me who all planning marathons this spring.
| Summary Data | ||
| Total Time (h:m:s) | 1:21:35 | 6:12 pace |
| Moving Time (h:m:s) | 1:21:35 | 6:12 pace |
| Distance (mi ) | 13.15 | |
| Moving Speed (mph) | 9.7 avg. | 15.4 max. |
| Elevation Gain (ft) | +714 / -708 | |
| GPS Signal Quality | Excellent | MB Gravity Web Service |
| Similar Activities | My Digest TrailNetwork | |
| Download | GPS Device | |
| Export | GPX HST CRS | |
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