Gosport Half Marathon

Well, this was a bit of a disaster! Not, injury wise, although I was quite sore the next day, but organisationally wise.

My plan was to run this at marathon pace, to try and make up for the marathon paced sessions I'd missed out on during my injury. I knew I was also running on tired legs and so had to be very strict with myself not to get carried away. I started off running with Tom Payn, and we let Simon Plummer go shooting off. This turned out to be wise for 2 reasons: 1) he was doing sub 5 min miling, and 2) the lead bikes missed a right turn at about 2.5 miles and he went about 100m too far before having to come back. By this point, after a couple 5.03 miles, I let Tom go and settled into my own rhythm. Simon went back past me and James Baker was coming back to me by now. I soon went past James and was running 5.10-5.15 miles pretty comfortably. There had been gales and flooding in Portsmouth the day before this race and we were very fortunate to *only* have some strong breezes and one HUGE puddle to wade through.

All was fine until the 2nd time we reached this puddle, after a 4 mile loop. I was catching Simon now, and as we joined the loop, was lapping people. There was a sign somewhere round this puddle telling the runners at the 9 mile mark to turn right, and the masses were going left, as I did last time I came thorugh here. There was also a marshall here telling people it was safest to wade through the puddle, not go on the grass. I was catching Simon quite quickly at this point and he went round the puddle and I waded through, completely missing the sign and no marshall was there to tell me to peel off to the right. As I was focussing on not drowning, I didn't see where Tom had gone. I turned left, and then went past Simon. I thought it odd that it looked like I was going round where I had just been so asked a marshall if the leaders went this way. They said yes, so I followed. I didn't see mile marker 9, so asked the next marshall the same thing: again, yes I definitely went this way. By now I was missing all mile markers and thought it very odd that I was doing the same loop again. By about mile 12 I knew I was screwed and there was nothing I couldo do, so I swore to myself a bit, ran until mile 13.1 (68.05) and then just steady ran the last 4 miles to the finish. Simon had followed me and must have given up and turned around, as I saw him jogging very slowly on the other side of the road as I steady ran in to finish 242nd in 91.11...

I was supposed to do 45mins after this race anyway so as far as training purposes goes, the end result was fine. I ran a half just inside my goal marathon pace, feeling ok, then did 7 miles afterwards at steady pace. I did miss out on a £30 Argos voucher, which is obviously a big kick in the teeth...

I know the organiser felt awful about it, and these things happen. It did seem extremely odd that at a point where there's a divide, there was only an A4 sign, and not one marshall shouting out that leaders went right etc. Oh well.... I feel much more sorry for Simon, who was after a decent time, and had a completely wasted day really. I was aware of my hip in the latter stages of the race, and it bacame sore later on, but I'm pretty sure it's ok. It should be easier from hereon in, so it will get a bit of a rest! Overall, fairly happy. The wind and massive puddle was worth a fair bit of time and I'm pleased I felt in control, is a bit of a confidence boost after the past 2 weeks or so.

Splits: 5.03, 5.03, 5.15, 5.12, 5.06, 5.28 (puddle and marshall unsureness!), 5.19, 5.12, 5.09, 5.14, 5.18, 5.12, 5.15.