Cris Iles-Wright gives it his all in Plymouth…

Last year I surprised myself on Plymouth Half Marathon by taking my Pb down to 1:33:55.  Since then I’ve been planning to do this years’ in 1:30:00.  As the race has a 1:30 pacer and I’ve been running and preparing well, it looked possible.  But I’ve also been aware it’s a tough challenge.

I went off slightly ahead of pace and felt comfortable on it.  By the file mile point I was a minute ahead of schedule.  Then we hit the first hill and the pacer went past with his crowd of 1:30 hopefuls.  They stayed in sight, but the second, bigger hill was on 7 miles and I dropped further off.  The group went on out of sight so I dug in.  Unfortunately that pace of 6:52/mile seemed just too hard.  I kept pushing but my legs just couldn’t give me any more.  The last mile included a hill and some really determined running from me, but I came in at 1:30:22.

It’s a Pb by 3 minutes, and I was placed 163 out of 4700 finishers, so I despite not hitting the 1:30, it was a good race.  It was also the hardest I’ve run for as long as I can remember, I gave it everything I had, and did the best I could.

Not sure whether I’ll have a go at another half this year, maybe it’s time to have another go at marathon.
Choices choices…