The Bournemouth Bay Half wasn't originally going to be on my agenda this year as I wanted to focus on marathon training rather than running the risk of going OTT on a non-charity race and causing myself an injury. Unfortunately, two things got in my way of this:
Firstly, the Bay Run was the first longer distance race I did in my first year of running, which I think was the start of my journey into longer distance running, even if I didn't quite know it yet.
Secondly, was a challenge with Scott Harris (an ultra distance runner that makes my 12 marathon challenge look like a 1km fun run) to try and finish the race in 90minutes or less. I've never been too good at turning down challenges, so my fate was somewhat sealed at this point.
The race itself is a massive event, and by all accounts has grown on last year. The half marathon had some 1450 runners this year, which compared to the meager 400 or so runners that I usually encounter in the marathons i've done so far, the crowd was daunting to say the least.
The race also marks the start of the WRC club championship, and we had a massive turn out split between the half marathon and 10km races, which is an encouraging sign for the rest of the season.
The start of the race was split into anticipated finishing times, so I managed to wade through the sea of people to the 90minutes grouping, coming across a fellow WRC runner, Kelly Lucas, who was also in on the 90minute finish challenge with myself and Scott.
As the race started, it was pretty slow going, which is to be expected with such a large crowd and the small-ish pathway of Bournemouth beach, but the crowd soon slimmed down, with people either being a bit too optimistic with their expected finishing time, or overly conservative and starting further back. Either way, thankfully there was chip timing, so everyone gets a fair result in the end!
Kelly and I ran together for the first few minutes, although she has been training alot recently and dropped off the pace, finishing in an awesome 1hr 45m ish.
I didn't have sight of Scott at this point, although from speaking to him subsequently, he was looking over his shoulder alot expecting me to turn up and overtake, which spurred him on to finishing in an amazing 1h 27minutes and placing 50th.
I never did catch him up however. The start of the race was a bit disappointing for me. I'm not 100% comfortable in the new shoes, whether this is because I am not used to the higher heel, or they are just not right for me, I don't know. However, nature called in the first mile or so and then I had to redo my shoe laces which cost me a few minutes.
It was pretty plain sailing after the first 3 miles or so, the course up to that point containing a nightmare of a hill, which thankfully is the only meaningful incline on the course, but after that the course is relatively flat along the stretch of sandy beaches of the south coast.
The weather was perfect for the race, if a little hot. For me, it served as a good indication of the likely conditions for London in 3 weeks, and gave me an opportunity to test out hydration plans (which I got very wrong!) and make some notes for later. The cold water sponges were a nice touch, and I think were very welcomed by alot of the runners towards the end of the race when the sun was coming towards it's highest point.
I tried a different race-nutrition this time, favouring the lucozade jelly beans. I tried taking a few every 3miles or so, but found they really didnt do anything for me, and I found the noise of them jangling around to be quite annoying. I suppose if you were to run with headphones, it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I don't, so different strokes for different folks I guess. I am thinking of trying some gels on my next longer run, but will have to try it this weekend, as I want to avoid the problems of tummy upsets on the big race day if something doesn't agree with me.
The crowd on the day was a bit of a novelty. Whilst all races generally attract some form of support, either from local residents, or friends/families of runners, it was quite nice to see larger crowds on throughout the route. Quite possibly they are there for someone specific, but the fact that they cheer for most (if not all) runners is a nice gesture, and can quite often be the small spark you need to ignite the furnaces again if you're flagging and push you on to the finish. To anyone reading this who is or was a supporter, Thank You.
As I reached the half way point, it was quite clear that I wasn't going to meet the 90minute deadline. My previous personal best was 1h 39minutes, set in swanage in 2011. The swanage course has the advantage that, as long as you can make good time in the first 7 miles, the remainder of the race is mostly downhill and so you can power through right to the finish and make up for lost time on the 3 larger hills in the first half. The Bay run presents no such opportunity to slice off some wasted time.
My training has been predominantly towards stamina and endurance rather than speed, although I would have hoped that I would have become faster, if only over longer distances, but I found that I simply couldn't maintain the 7min/mile pace required for a 90min finish.
On the plus side however, I did feel quite comfortable (in my legs at least) maintaining a pace of 7:15mins/mile, which is reassuring for my PB attempt in London on 22/04/2012. I found that during the last 2-3miles or so, I felt quite sick, although it was more a feeling of emptiness in my stomach, most likely due to dehydration, than nausea -- definately a lesson learned for next time, drink more water.
I was overtaken quite alot during the last mile or so. I used to try to always put in a sprint finish, but I find lately that I have little or nothing left when I cross the line. I suppose its a personal choice whether you leave something in the tank for the last dash towards the line, or simply push yourself to the limit for the entire race.
Either way, I crossed the line in the time of 1h 34mins, meaning that I missed the challenge by 4minutes, but beat my previous personal best by 5minutes. Win some lose some.
Overall, great day and looking forward to doing it next year, when hopefully i'll beat that 90minute barrier.
