Stonehaven Half Marathon 2010

Weather forecast for today's race (my first ever half marathon) was not promising - "heavy rain" was advertised. I'd been hoping the weather wasn't going to be too hot (I really don't cope well in the heat and the thought of running up miles of hills in scorching temperatures didn't appeal) and it looked like I was going to get my wish. Reports from Stonehaven folk in the morning on Facebook confirmed that the rain was, indeed, heavy, and that strong winds were adding to the fun. I don't mind rain, but torrential downpours didn't sound that great.

Rain got heavier as we headed down the A90 to Stonehaven and husband dropped me off outside the sports centre. Daughter had been agitating to go to the beach, but looked at the windswept rain-drenched prospect and announced "I don't want the beach after all, I want to go to a nice warm home". They did go for a short walk in the end, in wellies and waterproofs. I wasn't very sure where to go but adopted the traditional method of finding some people in running gear and following them across a field, and made it to the registration area in plenty of time. Could've been better signposted, though. Registration entailed standing in a long and slow moving queue in a very windy and rainy field before eventually being issued with a number and timing chip. Glad I had my waterproof jacket on although I then didn't know what to do with it and ended up tying it round my overstuffed (phone, sweets, energy gel) waist-pack thing. Was also needing the loo for the 250,000th time of the morning but by the time I'd finally managed to cackhandedly safety-pin my race number on and lace the timing chip through my laces, everyone was heading off to the start and I didn't think I had time, a decision which I knew I might come to regret.

Kept hearing people at the start saying "After the first four miles it's all downhill!" which frankly I did not believe, rightly as it turned out because they were in fact big liars. After the usual milling about the race finally started and off we went, me still thinking about how I really should have gone to the loo and wondering if there would be any suitable bushes to hide behind, and up the first small slope, and along a flat bit, and up another hill, and I settled into my near-the-back-of-the-pack pace and actually felt OK, apart from the whole needing the loo business.

First mile marker came before I was expecting it, or rather before my Garmin was expecting it as it said I had only gone 0.9 miles, but I was feeling fine and very glad I had loaded up my MP3 player with the free Audiofuel running music I was lucky enough to receive as my 3rd place Juneathon prize (THANKS SEAN! And everyone else involved!) and rather belatedly fired up the first hour of the Run Free compilation, which was brilliant and really kept me going. Also at around this point I saw a guy quickly disappear into some trees, presumably to answer a call of nature, and wondered if I should do the same (although obviously not following the guy because that would just be weird) but as we all know these things are much easier for people with XY chromosomes and also I didn't really want to lose time and I wasn't desperate so I just kept going.

I had heard about the hills and even seen them, as I drove over the course last week, and the course profile looks like this (sorry about crapness of picture, which was all I could find/manage to insert) -

which obviously looks quite scary, but in fact I didn't find them as bad as I had thought. Although I did walk a bit on some bits. It's also perfectly obvious that it is NOT all downhill after the first four miles although the first four miles are definitely the worst. But as I said, not that bad. I even managed to overtake some people on the hills! It was mostly country roads so there weren't really crowds of cheering spectators a la London Marathon etc, just the odd person in a car, but there were loads of marshals, people handing out water, etc and they were all really encouraging. At about the 7 mile mark we came on to the appropriately, if unpleasantly, named Slug Road which leads from Banchory into Stonehaven and there was a bit more traffic on that, though still not much, and we were ordered to KEEP LEFT, which I did, although one car did seem to come perilously close. A particular highlight at this point was the bus full of waving, clapping passengers which was sounding its horn and flashing its lights (I *think* in a supportive way. I hope.).

I had been fully expecting a slow first few miles and was quite surprised to find that I had done the first 6 miles in pretty much an hour exactly (OK, it is slow for most people, but not as slow as I had expected). I'd been aiming for, though not really expecting, an average pace of 10:15, and was ahead of this by around 15 seconds per mile, although pace was not exactly consistent. However by around the halfway point was very hopeful that I would achieve my secret target of 2:15:00 and in fact the further I got the more it looked like I might actually beat this in spite of being a wimp and walking some bits. I also found I was very gradually overtaking some people (the field had thinned out considerably by this point and there were very few runners in sight) which was nice, although the bloke in the blue t-shirt who I had been alternately overtaking/being overtaken by almost from the start did pass me at one point and I never saw him again. At around mile 11 I gradually gained ground on a girl who was running with her boyfriend, who was clearly a faster runner than her as he kept running ahead and back and generally leaping around waving his arms and encouraging her, while she was more of a plodder like me. I think I would have found this very irritating had he been my boyfriend and would in fact have been tempted to punch him, but maybe she liked it. Thankfully I got past them and was into the home straight, heading down into Stonehaven, although it still wasn't all downhill as advertised by the big liars at the start as there was an uphill bit which went over the dual carriageway, with men at the top handing out water and encouragement. By this time (incidentally further than I have ever run before) I was feeling pretty tired and exhausted and there was a strong headwind and I was still slightly needing the loo though not any more than I had been at the start, i.e. not desperately, despite having guzzled loads of water and Lucozade Sport, and was well into the second hour of, in fact approaching the end of, Audiofuel, which as it turned out had been perfectly timed to finish when I did.

And I ran down the hill and towards (though not into) the sea and round the bend onto the road leading back to the field, which was a bit weird as there were lots of people who had already finished walking the other way along it, and into the field and over the finish line in a time of 2:10:20. Woohoo! Actually, on reflection, I think I could have managed a bit faster... probably not the fabled sub-2 hours, but 2:05 might be within my grasp for the next one...

It then started raining absolutely torrentially and I had to phone husband to come and get me and stand in the sports centre car park waiting for him while getting totally and utterly drenched by the deluge, in fact I might just as well have gone and jumped in the sea. But who cares! It was a great race, I thoroughly enjoyed it, the organisation and support from all involved was fantastic and I will definitely go back next year.



Not very flattering picture taken outside my back door as I sadly had no loving husband and daughter waiting to applaud me and photograph my moment of glory at the finishing line, since they mysteriously didn't want to stand around for ages in a field in the pouring rain. I don't think it shows but I am completely drenched from head to toe.


Many, many thanks to everyone who sponsored me for Marie Curie Cancer Care. I have nearly, but not quite, reached my target amount so if anyone still wants to sponsor me it will be much appreciated!

Distance: 13.02 miles (bit short according to Garmin, not sure why)
Time: 2:10:20
Splits:

10:25
9:55
10:23
11:21 (this was the hilliest bit)
9:14
9:19
10:56
9:48
8:59
10:20
10:15
9:30
9:57

Average pace: 10:00