Helsby Half 2024

So …

that actually went better than I thought it would.

Okay, so I was last Pensby in, and I was twelve minutes slower than last year, and I got pipped at the final post by a guy who evidently had more than jelly in his legs.

But …

the weather wasn’t too bad at all, and I got to the end before it began raining, and I wasn’t desperate for a wee until mile nine, and I stayed running for pretty much all of the race, and for my current fitness level, this was a pretty good showing.

Coming into this race this morning, I was more nervous than I have felt in ages about a half marathon distance. I’ve never been speedy but I normally have the stamina to comfortably get to the end. It was good that I was picking up Paul and Raph, so that I couldn’t stew in my own dread. It was very good that I was picking up Paul and Raph because I managed to get lost, even with Google maps on, right at the end, and the guys helped me get the car to the right place finally. Was that my subconscious trying to keep me from starting?

At ten or eleven degrees centigrade and wind levels not yet hollering, I caught up with John and Cath in the sports field at the beginning, where the back of the long line of starters were gathering. It wasn’t as long as other years as there were over two hundred DNSs (Did Not Start). I didn’t find that out until after but I can bask in the knowledge that I was at least fit enough to get going.

After a mile or so Cath inched forward, or I inched back, and pretty soon she was out of sight. John, meantime, decided that I was going to be his good deed of the day, and dialled back his aims to stick with me for most of the race. He actually pulled me along at a pace that was a tad quicker than I would have done alone, and it was great to be able to have that chatting compadre to help the miles slide by.

We got into a bit of a rhythm, and I decided to take some chewy blocks every three miles or so, as I didn’t want a repeat of my previous week’s long run. We kept seeing the same people go ahead or go behind for quite a few miles, and there were friendly quips going around as we all ploughed on.

John asked me to remind him to pull his shoulders down. As a guy who sits a lot for work, he’s aware that he hunches up when he’s running unless he’s conscious. I realised that it wasn’t so much his shoulders hunching than his back.

            ‘Try imagining there’s an invisible string pulling you up John. Think tall but relaxed.’

Easier said than done at mile seven.

I made John crack on after the drinks station at mile eight as I knew I was holding him back and there wasn’t a huge lot of chatting going on when we were both starting to tire. I was pleased though that I was still going steady, only really walking at the drinks stations for about fifty yards. My energy levels were dropping but not plummeting. It did require some concentration to stay running. I did though, for the vast majority of the ‘race’, which had been reframed as a ‘training run’.

By the time I got to the final straight, John re-ran it to get me to the end. Like the hard task master he has the potential to be, he shouted at me to sprint in, to leave it all out there, and to stay ahead of this bloke who was thundering along behind me.

I just got pipped at the end but that was fine. I made it over the line, in one piece, and had paced myself, or been paced by John, pretty well.

Poor Raph was waiting for me as I finally got to the end of the interminably long walk back to the club house (especially if you’re desperate for a wee). Paul had managed to get a lift back with someone else. Raph was very chilled and smiley about the extra wait, and was talking about prepping for a roast and passing the hoover over the house before his wife and kids came back. I was just thinking about my bed.

I’m really pleased to have done it. To know I can do it, even with a terrible lack of training. I will probably sit out the next couple of days, especially as Storm Isha is doing her thing, but I feel I’m back into the training mode again, and am pretty ready to start building again for this year.