21/03/2010 - Alloa Half Marathon

WOW! What a race, this has to be quite easily the best race I have ever ran.

I headed up with a group from the club and we got there in plenty of time to collect our numbers and timing chip. I was excited just to have number 222! I'm easily pleased :-) We got changed attached our numbers/timing chips and before I knew it we were off on our warm up which was an easy 1/2 mile jog. The others then took off their warm up gear in the leisure centre then we headed to the start. This is where I lost everyone! But I wasn't too bothered as there was only a couple of minutes wait and it meant I was going to be going at my pace and not someone elses.

I didn't realise but I was quite far back compared to the rest of my club mates but as soon as it started everyone spread out quickly so it was easy to get settled. Derek from Giffnock past me after half a mile, then Jacqui who must have started even further back than me. I was expecting Jacqui's parter Steven to pass but no sign of him. The first mile is a loop which goes almost to the start/finish area then the route heads east then north east up to Tillicoutry which was about the first 5-6 miles. About 4 miles in I noticed a Giffnock vest in the distance which turned out to be Jim as I caught up with him just as we turned left at Tillicoutry. The first part of the race I would describe as undulating, the third mile was slightly slower due to a long gradual uphill but apart from that I was pretty steady.

Jim had done the race before and told me that the next stretch was pretty flat so I decided to push on and get as much time in the bank as possible before the hills at 10 and 11 miles which everyone was going on about. One guy I spoke to briefly at 8 miles was pretty much advising me to slow down now to save myself for these hills which at this point were 2 miles away! I just replied I had probably done worse in training.

In my head I had split the race into 3 sections. The 3 mile warm up. The 7 mile middle section. Then slogging it for the last 3 miles. So when I got to the turn to head back to Alloa it was just about 10 miles and I was feeling suprisingly good. The hill that everyone has been talking about came in to view. I took one look at it and fair enough it was long and a wee bit steep but I wasn't going to slow down! To show this I actually did my fastest mile of the race up to this point at 7.17. Did I slow down for the next incline between 11-12? - new fastest mile up to this point 7.08! The rest of the race I upped it again and was feeling so good!! So managed 6.49 in the last mile and then 6.30 pace for the final sprint to the line. I was so happy when I finished especially seeing loads of Giffnock vests right after the line where we all congratulated each other as the majority of us were celebrating good times/PBs!

Everything just clicked today and I just felt I could go on and on and it didn't even hurt which I was expecting from mile 8 but it just never happened. I am totally buzzing still as I thought before the race I might have a chance at beating my PB and if I ran really well I might be able to get 1.37.30 but to get 1.36.48 is just awesome! My old PB was 1.40.19 from 6 years ago and after 5 attempts of being nowhere near I finally conquered it which I have got a lot to thank my club for as it has improved me no end. I also wasn't sure whether to use the mile splits on my watch but I'm glad I did as it was something to look forward to at the end of each mile. Especially seeing the splits decrease all the way through.

I told some of the people at work I was doing this and the general response I got was that Alloa was a bit of a dump. After doing this I thought it was a really nice town and the route was really nice as you had the Ochills in view for 3/4s of the race and most of the race was in the countryside. There were water stations every 3 miles and the marshalls/police did a great job. The start/finish area was run like a well oiled machine and the leisure centre was ideal for coping with everyones stuff and changing/toilet facilities. Although there are a few uphills, you have to remember there are just as many downs. So if you did lose any speed on the ups you could make up for it on the long gradual downhills which in turn makes it a PB course as there were many PBs today from the people I spoke to after.

Mile Splits

1 Mile 7:26.16 7:26.16
2 mile 7:26.26 14:52.42
3 Mile 7:39.17 22:31.59
4 Mile 7:33.22 30:04.81
5 Mile 7:23.08 37:27.89
6 Mile 7:32.29 45:00.18
7 Mile 7:24.74 52:24.92
8 Mile 7:31.68 59:56.60
9 Mile 7:25.12 1:07:21.72
10 Mile 7:19.19 1:14:40.91
11 Mile 7:17.3 1:21:58.21
12 Mile 7:08.84 1:29:07.05
13 Mile 6:49.13 1:35:56.18
13.1 Mi 1:02.29 1:36:58.47

Offical chip time 1.36.48

A race I will be doing again in the future for sure. Now I just need to work out how to beat this time!