Helensburgh Half Marathon

It was only on Friday that I decided to enter this race, although online entries had already closed so I had to get there fairly early to register. Not having completed a single run of 10 miles or more since the Balloch to Clydebank Half Marathon in March, I still thought I might have enough miles in the bank to attempt a 6:00/mile pace, but was prepared to slow to a jog if it was going badly.

The sun came out right before the start which made it a bit warmer than I would have preferred. I reached the first mile marker in 5:50 and eased off very slightly as I didn't think I could maintain that pace comfortably. My left hamstring tightened up after about 10 minutes but I stopped noticing it after a while. By about 4 miles I was running with a small group, but I managed to break away on the hill at the 5-mile marker and open up a gap going back down the hill towards Helensburgh, although my average pace had dropped to about 6:04/mile by that point. Between 7 and 9 miles I gained a place and then lost one, and the lack of endurance training started to take its toll as my pace dropped towards 6:30 per mile. I was outside 1:01 at the 10-mile marker, but as I reached the turn at the end of the last climb, I had a quick look back and didn't see anyone within striking distance, so I reckoned I would be comfortably third for Garscube (possibly our last counter for the team prize) and would manage to avoid a potentially damaging sprint finish. This gave me a boost and I picked up the pace slightly, gaining an extra place in the last mile to finish in 13th position in 1:20:55 - nearly 3 minutes down on last year and over 5 down on my previous half marathon, but an OK performance under the circumstances, and we did win the team prize after all. Average pace works out at 6:11/mile.

Also ran a half-mile warm-up and warm-down. Weekly total: 41 miles.