Surrey International World Music Half Marathon - Run

Well, having done all my training slow and easy, I didn't know how I was now going to run 'fast'. But it had worked for my HIM, so figured I would just trust. I have had a busy couple of weeks, and woke up yesterday with the start of a cold, so I just figured I would see what I could do. Since I wasn't totally sure I could run an entire HM at 2 hour pace, I told myself I was just going to run 2x10km. No problem.

I could feel in the warm up that the congestion might cause a bit of a problem, but I went out strong. The pace bunny seemed to be going out a bit fast, so I held back a bit. I was feeling pretty good, and was at a good pace until 7km. Any time we headed south, we were dealing with some gusty headwinds. I had wanted to take a gel at 7km, but there was no water station until 8.5km; I think this may have been a part of my walk at 9.5km

There was an uphill section from 7-10km. Nothing huge, but all uphill. I ended up having to take a walk break at 9.5km. I wasn't wearing my HRM, cause I knew it would just stress me out today, but I knew I was way up high. This section was an out and back, so I was looking for Viv as well. I walked about 200m, then got going again. I knew at this point I had to make a decision, give in and just take it easy, or do the best I could. I wanted to give in, but I knew that I would be so mad at myself if I did. So I decided to keep going.

About km 11, I had the conversation I always have with myself in the middle of a race. Maybe I am not cut out for this, maybe I should just race for fun, not for PRs, blah blah blah. And the whole time I am remembering an article I recently read about training your brain to not 'see' the pain. I gotta work harder at that...

So km 12-14 are again all uphill; got to km 14, and walked a bit again, partly to take another gel and get some water. Now we are in the park, past the lake and the wind is really up. People are hanging on to their hats...

Once out of the park, we are at 15km. Ok, I tell myself, I can run 6km let's get 'er done. I took a couple more walk breaks on uphills. The route passes by my street at 19km, and one of my neighbors had come out with her pup and her pompoms and was out there cheering me on, that was cool. One last steep-ish uphill and we are 1.5km from the finish. I was able to pick up the pace and finish pretty strong. Ended up with a 4min PR, so happy with that.

Not have such a busy schedule in the 2 weeks before the race. I seem to need to get a gel in at about 7km , or I start to struggle a bit-either carry water, or know where the water stations are...

Some walking around and stretching. Found Sean and waited for Viv and Ivan. The wind was up pretty good and it was bloody cold! They finally came in about 30min later--turns out Viv was having some GI issues, and they ended up walking a lot. They headed off, and I walked home.


Weather, germy people, my mind...


Lots of volunteers and they are great. It was ugly out and they were all out there in it. The music miles are great too--I live near the course, and they were out there til the course closed at 2pm; the weather never was nice. Last year there was one aid station that ran out of water, this year again. And there were still those coming through on the second lap for the full marathon, hopefully they got restocked.