Following a week long holiday to Malta where Sally and I traveled out to celebrate one of my closest friends wedding. The Humber Bridge half marathon was my first race back after Driffield sprint triathlon earlier in May. This trip to Malta was brilliant as it was great to celebrate Nathen's big day with him and all his family and friends, but it also allowed me to have a short break from training, which was nice especially as I had a tough few months in the build up to the European Championships back in April.
After a strong result in last years Humber Bridge half marathon (1:27), which was later followed up by a solid race at Castle Howard 70.3 triathlon I was keen to race the Humber Half again. This had the added bonus of falling nicely into my training schedule; 2-weeks before an Olympic distance triathlon, which was serving as a warm up race for my final "A" race of the season a further 2-weeks later the Cleaveland Steelman triathlon (70.3).
In the final week leading up to the half marathon training was going really well and I was full of confidence as I placed highly and was close to a PB in one of my local TT's on the Tuesday evening. This was followed by a structured interval run on Wednesday before tapering down until Sundays race. In the last few days leading up to the race I checked out the route map so I could familiarize myself with the aid stations, prepped my City of Hull A.C. race kit so on race day I was ready to rock!
So it was the morning of the race, I woke up feeling good and started to enjoy a nice cup of coffee and ate my pre-race breakfast and then headed to the race venue. Parking was crazy this year with cars being abandoned all over the approach road as near by car parks were full, so I saw a spot and joined in on the action! With about 30-minutes to go I started my warm-up, keeping my eyes pealed for one of my mates Rob. The night before we'd been texting each other and agreed to pace the first few miles together. I couldn't find him among 2000+ field of runners, so just continued doing my thing. As the race organizers called us to the start line we met up and positioned ourselves close to the front, so we didn't get held up by the fun runners!
The race organizers held us at the start line before giving us a count down. The klaxon sounded (courtesy of Tommy Coyle & Miss Hull, what a claim to fame) and we where off! Rob and I pace the first few miles perfectly through Hessle and as we turned to approach the bridge Rob told me he was feeling super strong so bridged across to the next group of runners. I continued at my pace and pretty much ran solo across the bridge and along the slip road and into Barton, where the first water station was. There were plenty of water stations en route, which was good as it was quite a warm day and I defiantly needed them. Once I dropped into Barton I was then able to pick up the pace and started to make inroads on those athletes who were ahead of me.
My "Blue Steel" look, going through Barton.
The route then took me through Barton market place, where I was able to kick on a bit faster, before heading out onto the only long stretch of flat road. This stretch of road took us under the Humber bridge, so I knew (along with the mile markers) that we were fast approaching the most feared and infamous part of the race the mile long stretch up "Cardiac Hill". I made sure I knocked off the pace a little for this section, careful not to go too deep into the "red" as I was warned this could make or break your race. I got to the top of the hill, feeling as good as to be expected. I took a left turn and the started the final stretch back to the finish. There was a small bit of respite along the slip road, which was down hill, before I started crossing the bridge for the final time. The first half of the bridge was uphill but i could see a runner ahead of me and that was my aim to pass him, which I did. It was now downhill and full gas to the finish line. Pretty much the whole race there were people out supporting, but the final 1/2 mile the supporters were out in force, which gave me that added boost all the way to the finish!
I finished in a respectable time of 1:28, slightly slower than the year prior, but I was told by Derek one of the running club coaches that it was slow day, so I wasn't too disjointedness as I couldn't have given any more. I came in the top 50 out of a field of ~2000 runners, so again buzzing with that!!
As always a massive thanks to my sponsors Meridian Foods and Coconoil and to my coach Ian Mayhew (Gears & Tears). Picture courtesy of http://www.humber-half.org.uk/
