BUPA Great South Run

I’ve always wanted to do this race but it has always seemed to clash with something else.  I remember watching it on TV last year and thinking what a super quick course it looked as Joseph Ebuya powered away to an outrageous 45min vitory.

Training had gone really well over the last few weeks approaching this race and apart from a blip when I was ill at Sutton Park, the races had started to go a lot better as well.  I think I fell ill partly because of the demanding new schedule I am following with my new job.  Travelling an extra 100+ miles a day to get to work and back has taken some getting used to and I have been feeling very run down some days.

As race day approached, I was starting to dread another couple of long car journeys.  But Marius was good company as always and we arrived at about 7:30pm and went for a 3 mile jog along the seafront.  It was pretty blustery out there but we hoped that race day would be different.

I warmed up with a big group and the wind didn’t seem like it was going to be a problem at all.  That was until we turned around and it felt like we were being battered by a wind machine.  My attitude was that it would be the same for everyone but that it would be essential to get yourself in the right group and not get detached from it as the last 2 or 3 miles were going to be nasty!!

The race got underway and I quickly found myself in a group with Aaron Scott, Ben Fish, Paul Marteletti, Adrian Holliday and the Martin brothers formerly of Sunderland but now sporting the colours of their new club Stockport Harriers.  I was feeling good as we moved through 1 mile in 4:55, 2 miles in 9:50 and 3 miles in 14:45.  As even paced as even paced running gets!  Just as we were coming up to the 4^th mile, I decided to move across to grab a bottle of water, and found myself slightly detached.  It was at this point that the group was getting very close to Ian Hudspith’s group and they seemed to be inspired by this and upped the pace slightly.  I felt like I would have to work too hard to get back with the group so just focussed on running strong and fluently.  There was a huge gap behind me and I was grateful when I was caught by Matt Janes, Tim Hartley and Martin Whitehouse as at least I could work within a group again. 

The four of us ran together until hitting the sea front at 8 miles and then it was like hitting a brick wall.  Our final 2 miles were outside 11mins and any chance of a half respectable time went out of the window.  As I predicted before the race, those who found themselves in the biggest groups and stayed there were the ones that ran the fast times. 

Interestingly, the fastest time from the group I started in was 50:20 which given the first three mile splits for us were all 4:55 shows just how much of an affect the wind was having out there.   My final time was 52:18 which is pretty nondescript really – my performances have started to improve in recent weeks but I don’t think I’m ready to race well at 10 miles and upwards just yet.