Dead Runners society race report
Grunty Fen half-marathon, Witchford - sunday 9th September
2001.
Next was my biggest road race of the
summer, a test to see if I was really fit for this marathon and to see if I
could get under 1h30 again.
Evenin all
Tony here in windy olde
englande.
Today we did the Grunty Fen half marathon up in Witchford near
Ely. Fen is an old english word meaning very exposed and windy :-( I have heard
good things about this race as it is a nice flat course but it is also very
exposed which makes it tough on a windy day, and we had a real windy day today
:-(
I had eased off for this race and I was hoping for a good run, I did
10 minutes jogging before the race before putting on my race gear and jogging
off to the start. A fairly hard start, I knew with this wind that sticking in
the bunch would be a good plan for the first part of the race. Mile splits were
6.50, 6.53 (wind behind) 7.12, 7.05 (into wind), I was in a fairly big bunch
here for the first of two laps. Then as we approached the village where the race
started and finished the bunch broke up and I speeded up with the wind, 5th mile
6.39 (34.39 at 5 miles), 6th mile 6.35 at the start of the 2nd (bigger) lap, the
wind was right behind us and I was flying along. Halfway 44.36, I was having
thoughts of maybe getting under 1h30 at this point but I also knew there was
some wind to face yet. I was running along shoulder to shoulder with another
runner but the next runners were 100m ahead. 7th mile 6.37 but soon after this
into the wind for the next 4 miles :-( Next mile in 7.00, a couple of runners
came past after that, it was getting very hard, 7.19 for mile 9 another runner
came past and I hung on to him. It was getting very hard, some long straight and
very exposed roads around here, it was just a matter of battling against the
wind the best I could. 7.19 for mile 10, 10 miles in 1h09.28. Now we were back
on ground from lap 1, next mile was another 7.19, I hung onto the 9 mile runner
until 11 miles but just before we finally turned out of the wind he got away. 2
more miles to go with the wind behind, the runner who I was with at halfway
repassed me around here, very tired by now and running solo. Back into the
village of Witchford, next mile another 7.19, I knew that sub 1h30 wasn't
possible now but I kept pushing hard. A fairly twisty last mile through a
housing estate before finally coming to the college and the finish, 13th mile in
7.10 and I picked up the pace at the end to just get under 1h32, 1h31.58 by my
watch.
Pretty tired on finishing, I tried to beat the wind and the wind
won. Still in the conditions it was a pretty good run, my fastest half marathon
of the year. I walked back to the car to get some more clothes on and then
walked back to the finish, a couple of minutes later Shelley finished the race
(which she was doing for a long sunday run) in just over 2 hours.
I'm not
so sure about the Abingdon marathon now, I was going to do it if I got under
1h30. I got close in pretty bad conditions, I will see how the long runs go over
the next few weekends before I decide. It would be nice to do Abingdon but I
have my doubts about whether I will be fit enough to do myself justice. Maybe I
will wait until the spring for another marathon.
bye tony....
Dr
Tony Bell
Milton, Cambridge,
England.
Tony@shells.demon.co.uk
http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
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