Severn Bridge Half Marathon
It was six o'clock on a Sunday morning, and I was cutting into a watermelon. The reason for this being: I decided that running a race in the middle of my marathon training would be a great idea! Get me back into the racing mind-set and atmosphere after almost a year's break. So to that end, I signed myself up for the Severn Half, and the day has come.
After the usual preparations we load up and drive to Wales over the old Severn Bridge. Finding the event village is easy enough, and once parked, we join the crowd of runners mulling about. Right around that time the realisation hits that this is not just some people on the green, this all is the massive queue to the porta-loos comprised of exactly everyone. We backtrack to the entrance of the village and join the queue.
The river of bodies takes up to the loos and, past that, towards the start. Everybody looks super-prepared, with their compression sleeves and energy gels and hats and determination. I wonder idly if I should've made any such preparations.
We hike first to the bridge and then some way over the bridge to the starting line. I hear a faint pop at a distance and figure that must be the starting gun, so off we go with an easy trot.
I fully intend to conserve energy and pace myself, so I try to take it easy. After a km or two I discover I am going at around 5:30/km, which is way faster than I intended. I decide screw this and start picking people out form the back. The course is very flat with ONE HILL about half way, and boy do you know which one it is.
Anyway, running over the bridge is great and exhilarating, "between the water the the sky", and then we descend into the villages and the country roads. I manage to keep a pretty even pace throughout, and then THE HILL happens. It is heralded by a sign and everything slows down. I walk up the hill (overtaking some runners btw), someone suggests "small steps, small steps". Once we are up, we are greeted by a sign saying "Relax, it's downhill from here". This is about half-way point.
I meet 3 or 4 Vegan Runners vests, first I am too shy to chat so I just give them a "thumbs up" and an "alright", but then a lady from Wales catches up to say hello, so I am braver now and when I see someone else I come chat myself.
Up to the 15th km I manage to keep the pace of around 5:30, but then I finally gas out. I oscillate between 6:00 and 6:20 and the last few km which I barely noticed on the out seem unsurmountable. We approach the bridge, we cross the bridge, we go downhill and finally uphill just before the finish (how cruel). I stumble and nearly fall. I overtake, bizarrely, a family with a stroller on a narrow path. These last few km stretch out in an endless Escheresque drawing.
At last, the finishing line. I blast past the timing mats and nearly slam into the fence. I join the sea of people to my right, which I know by now is also a queue. The goody bag today consists of a bottle of water and a leaflet. They have really put some thought into this. The queueing continues first for the medal, then for the t-shirt, then for one candy bar and another (I ignore these since I don't know if they are vegan and can't be bothered to find out right now). Then a mound of green bananas. I move on.
I beat my PB by about 30sec, which is not bad considering I didn't race for a while and all I hoped for was to finish at a more or less marathon pace. I did have to work for this, though.
So this is it. Back home for a nice hot shower and a nap, and tomorrow the marathon training will have to continue. Groan.
Oh and btw, here's the Garmin data:
I am running Loch Ness Marathon to raise money for
Alzheimer’s Society. Please donate at the following link:
https://www.justgiving.com/Vadim-LockNessMarathon2014/
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