2010 Progress Entrant - Jayne Hall

Contents:- -Intro- Report -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- -14-

Report 7 - Week beginning 15/02/10

I had a mad moment this week on Monday..... for some reason I decided it would be a good idea to enter the Great North Western Half Marathon which was being run on the 21st February, it was on my home turf in Blackpool, using a route that I know very well.

With this in mind I had a relatively easy week running three steady runs on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday then resting Friday and Saturday.

I woke up on the morning of the race thinking I'd over slept as it was light..... not so - when I looked out of the window it had snowed overnight and we had about 2' and it was still snowing. My first thought was that the race would be cancelled, it NEVER snows in Blackpool and the council aren't really geared up to deal with it. The route would be dangerous but I had my usual pre-race breakfast, layered on the running kit and headed off to the start at the Hilton Hotel anyway.

It wasn't cancelled, the organisers had gritted the course! The course was a two lap one. It headed north to Anchorsholme along the top of the cliffs then turned and went back south almost to the North Pier. Then you passed the start at the Hilton Hotel and went back to Anchorsholme before heading south again to finish back at the Hilton Hotel.

It was very very cold with snow flurries. It was not too bad heading north as the wind was behind you but as soon as you turned back into the wind at Anchorsholme the wind chill took your breath away. After the first lap I thought 'just drop out, you've done 8 miles - that's OK' but in true race mode I just gritted my teeth and ran through the start and carried on into the second lap. I kept with the Runners World 8 min mile pacers until about mile 9.5 then suddenly when I looked up they'd somehow got about 30 or 40 metres on me! I then just went backwards..... the last two miles were hard though I hooked up with a girl from the Blackpool Athletics Club (she was a javelin thrower) and ran in with her. I finished in 1.48 - which under the circumstances I was happy with. I'd thought I'd be about 1.46 - I'd switched my watch off at mile 10 as I felt so fed up and thought I would be home in about 1.50.

I headed home to a hot bath, chicken dinner and chocolate courtesy of my lovely son-in-law (thanks Gil!)