Sheffield Half Marathon

We just arrived at a car park 30 minutes before the start of the race. I just go to the stadium about 10 minutes before the start of the race which was just enough time to find the family to hand my bag to. I then had to go through the stands to get to the track for the start of the race. I got to the end track and was able to spot my brother in 5,000 other runners. The weather was light drizzle and cool so I decided to wear some running gloves in addition to long sleeve top, long leggings and running bottoms.

It took a few minutes to cross the start line on the athletics track after the start of the race, luckily there was chip time so you got your own race time in addition to official race time. We planned to go about 10 minute miles for the race. By the time we got to the first mile I was starting to get warm and took the gloves off for the rest of the race.

We then maintained the pace for the next few miles despite the few inclines. When we got close to the half way point there were a lot more crowds and bands cheering the runners on. When we got to about 10 miles the pace was affecting my brother who then decided that we should continue at our own pace. So for the next 3 and a bit miles I increased my pace by about 1 1/2 minutes/mile. It was quite good to be overtaking lots of people at the end of the race.

When I got to ½ mile to go, which was on the outside of the stadium I picked up the pace a bit more. Then with about 500m I picked up again to get past a few more people before leaving and entering the stadium again. Then with 200m to I picked up the pace yet again, so with just over 100m to go when on the track I was going at a fast pace until the finish line. Luckily my heart rate monitor was not on as it would be near my limit. On my GPS my speed peaked at over 16 mph.

I learnt some stuff about the kit choices and the sports drinks that I used. It was a good 10 mile run with a 3 mile speed session which my legs felt ok.

Although I took a few minutes after I crossed the line to go through the finish line section just to get a medal, cereal bar with water available in cups on the side of the track. Strange for a city marathon there was no other drinks apart from water.