New Year new start? I felt a bit uneasy about leaving 2019 behind me from a running prospective, it was such a good year for me, PB's at every distance including the Chicago Marathon, not to mention winning the Langdale Marathon. I'd had dreams about how Chicago would go, none as good as it went in reality. I'd actually ran better than I'd planned in 2019. It was good to kick the New Year off quickly with my second visit to the North Lakes New Year Half, because I knew the enormity of the training block required to run my 2020 goal at London Marathon, along with relaxing the miles a bit over Christmas I was struggling to get motivated and this race was just what I needed.
Deciding to try and run sub 3 hours in Chicago all started 12 months ago at the North Lakes New Year Half Marathon 2019, when a slightly robust version ran myself 'on reflection' ran my very first sub 1 hour 30 min half Marathon in 1 hour 29 mins finishing 24th overall, see the pic below taken 12 months back. I thought, if I can run sub 1 hour 30, I can run sub 3 right? Now I know there is a bit more to it than that, but in principle yes I thought. So off I went.
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| Last Years Race |
So here I was back again, and I wanted to do the same again. Provide myself the confidence that I can run a half marathon at my planned London Marathon pace, 6 min miles or just under. I'd decided to drive up on the morning of the race from Hyde, 137 miles, but being early on a Sunday morning only took me 2 hours 15, and that's with a mandatory coffee stop. I arrived at race registration for about 8:20am, registration is held in the dinning room of the Graysonside B&B farmhouse, quite a unique feel to this race, I really like it to be honest. It's only in it's third year now, but when registration opens in August it sells out quickly with a field of about 400 runners and growing in popularity. There is always a few transfers knocking about in late December as people realise the festivities have done too much damage , so you can be lucky and pick up a late entry on the Facebook page.
I headed back to my car, made some porridge and coffee on my stove and got ready to go, took a mandatory picture of my race number as you do. It was cold, but actually quite mild for the time of year, about 8c, so I decided it was just a vest today with no arm warmers or gloves, in particular as I was here on business today and always get too warm when racing. I bumped in to Laura from our training group back in Hyde now running for Salford Harriers, I'm always banging on about Lake District races when training and Laura had taken me up on my recommendation to enter this race, it was good to see a friendly face and chat for short while before we warmed up.
It wasn't long before we were all asked to assemble under the starting banner for a race brief, I chatted to Chris Holdsworth who's won this race for the past two years and here today to make it 3 in a row. He was pretty modest about his chances today, but with local runner Ricky Lightfoot not present this year I didn't think anyone here was going to challenge him to be honest and I was right, Chris ran a race of his own winning in 1:08:21 and just three seconds shy of the course record.....which he holds. I positioned myself just one row from the front, I wanted to try and get a top 10 finish and perhaps challenge for the V40 so wanted a good start position.
After the usual countdown from 10 we were away, the route swings quickly left out of the driveway from Graysonside Farm and heads down hill for the first half a mile or so, the pace was hard initially with one or two runners chasing Chris down, but it didn't last and he quickly disconnected the pack and ran up the road at sub 5 minute miles opening up a significant gap. The pack then regrouped and settled down a bit. I think my first mile was about 5:30 min, I wasn't too worried, if you've read my blogs before you'll note I always run the first mile quite hard, bit of nerves, finding some road, not wanting to get dropped by the runners I want to race etc, I don't think it does much harm so long as you settle in after a mile or so and that's what we did. There was myself, Julie Briscoe lead lady and Wakefield runner, a Keswick runner and one other sitting in 2nd, 3rd 4th working together quite nicely for the first few miles of undulating roads. The pace felt tough and I was blowing a bit so tried to play it cool. I couldn't quite live with the two male runners by about mile 5 and they moved up the road, but never out of sight. From nowhere an Inverclyde AC runner just drifted past me like I was going backwards, I normally like to try and jump on the tail of runners that are going quicker, but he was moving quite a bit quicker, good early pacing and fair play I thought. So by my calculations I was now 5th on the road with the lead lady Julie and one other runner close behind.
Whilst I was getting battered by the wind with no one to hide behind I wasn't struggling anymore, I'd gotten my breathing under control and was running with a nice 'pop' as I call it , I felt in control of the race I was now in by mile 8 to hold 5th, whilst I could the see two runners ahead I didn't quite have the legs to chase them down, and already pacing at sub 6 min miles it felt just too quick to try. The route gets to a point then circles around the stunning Lorton Valley before heading back towards Cockermouth, the undulation is quite draining but the down hills allow you to pull the time back in, I knew by mile 10 we only had one more climb, so I deployed by 'only a parkrun to go tactic' and dug in. I knew Julie was still close behind as I could hear her so really just focused on my running style. As we got closer to the finish line more people were about to support the race , I still felt pretty good but my hamstrings were hurting a bit, shouldn't have run that bloody park run yesterday I cursed....
We hit the last long but steady climb at about 12.5 miles, I really had to push up here, a lot of the supporters were shouting for Julie to close me down, which really pushed me on and I ran hard up the last climb and managed to open up a bit of a gap and hold 5th, I didn't realise but I had a couple of runners for company so I was really pleased I could make one last push to hold out. I crossed the finish line in 1 hour 17 mins and 46 seconds! It was only whilst checking the stats the next day I realised this was a Half Marathon PB for me beating my Conwy time by a few seconds.
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| The finish sprint! |
I headed back to the registration area and visited Fellside Physio who were supporting the race again for some treatment on my hamstrings , always seem to get sore hamstrings at faster paces, I'll need to look closer at this over the next few weeks. There is also a bacon buttie and coffee on offer for all finishers which was excellent and very much apricated after my early start this morning. I got some warm clothes on and waited around for the presentations, as I mentioned Chris Holdsworth took the overall winner with Julie taking the woman's race and setting a new course record , high kudos to those two! I won the V40 and took 5th overall, felt very pleased and proud of myself to pick that up. The Inverclyde runner drifted past everyone into second and took V45, brilliant pacing!
Incidentally, Laura enjoyed the race, despite me telling her a load of bollocks about the course being pretty flat which it isn't , my brain must have cancelled the hills out from last year. So I've committed it to writing this year so I don't forget.
The whole day felt like last year, in that, I'd set a new half marathon PB and run just a bit quicker than my intended marathon pace for my 2020 goals.....if I can run a 1 hour 18 half I can run a sub 2 hour 38 Marathon right? In principle yes, but I know there is a LOT more to it than that, but that's the goal. So here we go again, 2020 lets do it.
If you fancy joining me at next years race you can sign up here from August 2020, join up to their Facebook page also for updates. Its a great race, but not flat... North Lakes New Year Half Not Flat
After the presentation I headed back to the car, got the heated seat on my poor hamstrings and set off on the long drive home, felt like a long but rewarding day, was nice to get home and see Sarah, we headed off to Tweed Tap a local micro pub for a couple of recover beers before Pizza at home, nice end to a nice day!
Happy New Year everyone and if you've lasted this long well done and thanks for reading !
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