Or, Stars on '45.
Getting to the business end now. Had a bit of a mid-week downer, as I was just starting to get sick of the endlessness of it all. Miles, runs, Programmes, plans. It seemed like I used to run because I liked to, but now it's because I have to. So, I did the miles, did the Tempo at Scotstoun despite feeling dog-awful and struggled through a rubbish Pace on Thursday.
But really, this week was all about today. The advice is always to do a half-marathon as race preparation about this far away from the main event. Get used to racing, rather than training, again; test the kit out; work out a race plan and try and stick to it. Well, Scotland in late March doesn't have many events, and I somehow managed to overlook the one that starts less than 10 miles from my front door last week (Balloch to Clydebank) and enter the Alloa Half Marathon today.
I had to think quite hard about whether to actually do it, given that I've missed at least one longer run from the schedule, but eventually decided the racing was a better idea. I devised a race plan that was intended to test my ability to run at, or just inside, my target marathon pace. I need to do 8-minute miles to hit 3:30, so the plan was to run the first 10 miles just inside this, then push on for the last 3. The intention was really to see whether I arrived at 10 miles feeling like I could run the same again at the same pace. Then go for it.
So that's what happened. Alloa is a decent sized run (about 1000 runners), well organised and marshalled, over rolling countryside under the Ochil hills. Seemed a quite serious effort, with almost half the runners affiliated. So, I just turned up and did my thing. Paced myself between 7:45 and 7:50 for the first 10, averaging 7:48. And felt really comfortable - breathing a lot less that the people I was passing and legs not too bad. So at 10 I went for it and ran at about 85% for the rest of the race. Largely, it must be said, because of the helpful downhills. Did the last 3 miles at 6:52 pace, saved a bit for a sprint finish and did 1:39:28. Great psychological boost at this stage.
Now, the spooky thing. And the reason for this week's sub heading. I turned 45 in January. My vest number for today's race was 45. I was in the MV45 category. Have a wild guess at my finishing position within this category. Yep. 45th. Does anyone know if the number 45 is lucky?
Anyway, the music will NOT be Stars on 45. But it will be related. One of the So45 compilation efforts featured the intro to this. As with so many things in life, it all comes back to The Boss. Fire.
Tenuous. Me?
Week's summary: 4 runs, 35 miles: Long run 13.1 miles
Miles since acceptance: 599
