Maidenhead Half Marathon

This is quite a leap entry, lots of things have come to pass since my last blog entry.
Summer's gonne, Maidenhead Half Marathon's gonne and with it the trainning for it! obviously!

The race was well organised, starting from the race village, the civit centre car park.

We got there around 8:30 and the first thing we noticed was the huge cue to the toilets. It's true, runners spend a good penny before the event!

Then it's time to drop of the bags tagged with our race numbers. Big piece of advice, make sure they are at least water proof! they didn't take a very good care of our bags as we found out later! they were soaked with rain.

We were called to the start line, all 2000+ one of us, and when the canon went it suddenly dawns on you that the race is on! My main thought was, take it easy, keep to the plan. That was followed by the realisation that people tend to run like loonies when they hear a canon firing.

The race went well, this is what my GPS recorded:

This is what I was thinking while running:
- good choice of soundtrack, 666 by the Aphrodite's Child was the perfect mix of mellow and power tracks
- good start down the A308, no pains no breathing problems, very smooth indeed. Good crowd too, look at them go...
- Nice change of scenery around Monkey Island, bit annoyed with dirt road but it wasnt for long...
- Water station 1, that was a bit of a battle field, people stopped to pick a cup of water. I won't stop I will pick one up while running and make the effort to drink from a plastic cup in the process. 89% of liquid wasted!
- Interesting view above the M4, lovely reception in Bray, best part of the race, fresh legs, the scenery was tranquil, "the system" on my headphones. Clean english country side! Best way to experience it!. Pubs there looks interesting too!
- Now i didn't like this, we had to stop and climb down some steps to the river side.
- Deceptively, we are still In Maidenhead! the race is now by the river, the leg started to talk to me and the rain started to fall...
- All the way to Cookham trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the left knee, tried back kicks with my legs to stretch while running, its a technique passed to me by an indian chief.
- Cows were on the side of the road, in a close packed herd trying to stay warm in the cold rain thinking how stupid humans must be to herd around in that sort of weather.Everything is wet!
- Apart from the knee the rest is awesome, scenery pace heart rate soundtrack still wet tho.
- The mile sign reads 10 and this means that there are only 3 to go, Maidenhead is now ahead and I wonder how they will twist and turn the route to cover that distance.
- Almost there, half a mile to go, the pain now can not be ignored, especialy in the small up hills, pace still within limits. If my legs were better conditioned i would hit some awesome times.
- Finish line, my number is announced and I look at the official clock, 2:20:34 which is now my personal Best. I feel like I could run more but with a new pair of legs...

That's when you pick up the Medal and drink all that water you can, pick your wet bag from the dump place they stored it for you and change to something drier from what you wear.

I enjoyed this race but i really need more trainning, get lighter and stronger in the legs.

The goal for 2012 is run without injuries or pain. in faster times and more miles under my shoes.