World Half Marathon Championships 2016

Cardiff, Saturday, March 26, 2016

Stephen Jackson

Ok, so Cardiff isn’t exactly on the doorstep. But if you’re going to do a half marathon four weeks before the Virgin London Marathon, you might as well do the World Half Marathon Championships.

A dramatic view of the Start.

I’d had no taper for this race, and the weather forecast wasn’t good, but I still had a feeling I could run well in Cardiff; and that proved to be the case. It’s always a good idea to mentally prepare for three outcomes, perfect, good and satisfactory.

The most important outcome of the day was an injury free run with the training benefit of 13.2 hard miles – not to lose sight of the fact that it was a training session for London; albeit the most high profile race I’d ever been a part of.

Stephen and Michael. I managed three sub 18 minute 5k’s  to get me to 15km (just under 10 miles) at a pace that would have got me tantalisingly close to my ‘perfect race’ time of 01:15. Unfortunately, that is when I started to slow – possibly due to fatigue, or some minor ‘stomach issues’ but most likely due to the monsoon that engulfed Cardiff for the last quarter of the race. I have honestly left the bath drier than I left Cardiff that day.

I really had to dig in as others around me were starting to slow up a little too. I managed to get into a little group to work through the last few miles, courageously led by the female winner of the 2015 Greater Manchester Marathon, Georgie Bruinvels – who I later went on to pass. So, a PB of 01:16:03, and a fantastic weekend. I still have unfinished business at this distance, but that can wait until later in the year.

Finally, a mention to my partner in crime Michael Littlewood who ran a very strong time of 80 minutes on fatigued legs – all looking good for London.

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