Today was the local half-marathon in my town of Pilar de la Horadada.
I’ve run it once before, 5 or 6 years ago. I ran that after only 3 weeks’ specific training and did it in a time of 2 hours 4 mins. I then ran another half-marathon in Murcia a couple of years after and did it with a time of 1hr 45m. During my recent marathon training my fastest half-marathon time was 1hr 39m.
Since I finished the Barcelona Marathon 5 weeks ago I’ve only ran three times. My heart and mind was never in this half-marathon but I’d already committed to doing it so I gave it a shot.
Also running were my marathon partner Dave Tait, whilst Michelle ran the 10.5km with Mikey and Wally Walton flew over for a break in his holiday flat he has in the town and ran the 10.5km also.
I’ve not been feeling particularly sprightly since coming back from my week’s blow out in Mexico. Despite hitting the gym, I’ve only been pushing weights and not concentrating on any cardio and it showed today.
I started the race way too fast, an average pace of 4m:30s per km after 2 kilometres took its toll on my lungs. At 8km into the race we ran within 400 yards of my front door. I wasn’t particularly in trouble but I wasn’t enjoying myself. So I just stopped. No big deal. I walked home, picked up my car and drove back into town to meet the others.
Wally had already finished with a time of 56m, he was very happy with that. Mikey was not far behind him with a time of 57m. He hadn’t run AT ALL to train for it, then again at 14 yrs old you’d expect him to piss it. I walked some way up the final stretch to jog back with Michelle as she came into view, finishing with a time of 1hr 08 secs. They were all shocked to see me.
Dave finished the 21km around the 1hr 40 ish mark. His personal best is around 1hr 30s I think. Well done to all the guys.
I now write this watching the London Marathon in my pyjamas. I’m glad that’s out the way. I’ve now got a good few weeks to get back into gym mode which will put me in good stead for a sprint triathlon I’ve entered on June 14th, again in my local town. 750 metres swim in the sea, 20km bike ride and 5km run. I have no intention of doing that at pace but I’m sure I’ll finish with ease.
Lesson learnt. Despite running the marathon 5 weeks ago the fitness does drop off if you don’t maintain it. I wonder if I could have finished if I was more sensible and ran at my usual pace, which is comfortably around the 5m15s per km mark ?
Anyway… it’s done now.