Helensburgh Half Marathon

I was still suffering from some kind of respiratory infection which had come on after the Arran relay but was hopeful of posting a decent time based on my Polaroid 10K results. My plan was to run about 5:50/mile for as long as I could. It was cool with light rain and not much wind, so good conditions for racing. I went through the first mile in just over 6:00, which seemed too slow, and somebody's Garmin beeped for the mile split even though we were just behind the chasing pack. I reached the second mile marker back on track at 13:40, feeling terrible, although I expected to feel better after maybe 4 miles or so. I didn't, but at that point I was in 6th place. I was 30 seconds ahead of my 6:00/mile fallback pace as we headed back down the hill towards Helensburgh, although I had lost a couple of places by that point.

By the time we got back to the town I was holding onto 10th place with little prospect of overtaking sufficient Bellahouston Road Runners for us to win the team prize, and my margin of error for sub-6 minute miles was gradually disappearing. It occurred to me more than once to ease off or even just stop. Between 8 and 9 miles I felt a little better, and with a secondary goal of sub-60 minutes at 10 miles, I managed to pick up the pace and move briefly into 9th before being overtaken again, although I got to 10 miles at 59:58. The next mile went by in 6:04 which meant I had fallen slightly outside a 6:00/mile average. I lost some more time and another place on the last significant hill, but with some fast finishers not too far behind I held it together in the last mile to finish in 1:18:56 for an average pace of 6:02/mile. This was still my fastest half marathon as a V40 and several minutes up on my time from the Great Scottish Run, but I felt like I should have done much better. I was third finisher for Garscube, and we ended up second team.