And finally… drum roll! After a final training run mid week and a set of intervals in the gym it was off to the south coast for the big one. Its important to remember that the Great South Run is a 10 miler, not actually a proper half marathon. But to be fair it felt like a marathon from the way my legs have been complaining.
The weather was cool and overcast on Sunday morning. Apparently about 24,000 runners were at the starting line, well it was rather tight I have to admit. I was lined up in the white coloured section, after the orange elite section and before the final green section. It was a comfortable place to be in some respects as I felt I was neither one nor the other and with limited training prior to the race I was concerned about my performance on the day. It was too late to think about what might have been though, as the runners slowly lurched forward to approach the starting line. The white bibs were lined up to start a good 10 minutes after the elite orange, but despite this it didn’t give us much space as we started off and I found myself ducking and diving as usual to final a space and pace to call my own. The weaving took up at least the 1st third of the race to clear up when the field finally spread out.
En-route the mile markers started from the 3 mile mark, which is fair enough, there didn’t appear to any pacers on route which is a shame but I guess you can’t have it all. I found myself coping well up until around 6 miles when I felt like I really should have felt better for the distance. Interestingly a 10 km marker was present just to confirm my standard training runs distance and the fact that from here on in I hadn’t really spent enough time on my distance runs. One blessing with the course is that there isn’t repeat loops or much in the way of double backing. Theres nothing worse than constantly passing front runners at advanced distances knowing you’re a long way from being where they are.
Time to shine – and refuel.The start line was at sea front, with half of the route coastal and the other half drifting through parts of town. At the 7 mile marker was a long slow u-turn, bringing the runners back round to the sea front and in for the big finish. I was really feeling it by this time, and quite frankly shocked at how tired I was feeling, constantly reminding myself that this was actually only a 10 miler. Mile 8 was incredibly tiresome and annoying but at least the precursor to the final push. I grabbed at the opportunity of free Jelly Babies while cradling my water bottle to help me see it through to the end. The last 2 miles were on the straight with a slight downhill advantage and the blue banner of the finish line clearly visible. It was merely a case of holding it together and considering where to let out one final sprint to gain a few precious seconds for the all important time.
And the final time was… ? 1 hour, 29 mins, 28 seconds. Its not going to be a personal best but actually when I worked it out compared to previous PB proper half marathon (a mere 15 mins longer), this wasn’t actually too bad. Hooray!