Bristol Half-Marathon

I knew that there were a few Brits with a good chance of getting a GB vest out of this race. There wasn't really anyone that was untouchable as far as I was concerned and I may not have been one of the favourites for the top 2 or 3 but I believed that if I had an excellent run and some things went my way elsewhere: I had a chance. Nick said to me to make brave decisions and that if I cross the line and say I should have gambled and tested myself whent he break came. Well, I won't say what he said he'd do, but you can guess!

I let Tomas Abyu, the Kenyan and Ben Whitby go at the start and settled into a pack of about 10 Brits and we were moving at about 4.50-4.55 miles and I felt pretty comfortable at that pace and thought at that point that I could threaten my PB of 65.24 if I could hang on to the group. At about 5 miles (which I passed in about 24.35), Mark Miles and Eddie Ernest Jones broke away a bit after we had turned back towards the city centre, and the breeze was in our faces now. When Gaz Raven, Ritchie Gardiner, and Martin Williams broke away jusr after 6 miles, I worked hard to go with them, but there was always a few seconds between us and I couldn't get back on terms with them, but had also  moved away from the rest of the group in the process. All I was thinking now was to keep focussing on the 3 guys in front of me and keep working hard. At 8 miles, the course becomes crap. Bridges, tight turns, hills, cobbles, and very few miles with clear running in. By 10 miles (50.00 ish), I was still trying to work on the gap of about 10-15 secs to the guys ahead, but Gaz Raven had broken away. I kept plugging away, and Ben Whitby and Eddie Ernest Jones faded quite a lot in the last 2 or 3 miles and I went past them both and so ended up with 65.58 and 7th place.

I was pretty happy with the race overall I'm certain it would be a PB on a faster course and it's the fist time I feel I've run a half on par with my 65.24 PB and was 90secs quicker than my two other effforts on this course. It bodes well for a 2.18 marathon attempt in 12 weeks time and I'm hoping to do a half on a fast course at some point to try and get a PB.