St Neots Half Marathon, 20 Nov 2022

I had signed up to do my first Half Marathon race in 2020 but covid meant that race got downgraded (oddly) to a 10k. Since then, the plan to do a Half got delayed but I was determined to do one this year, so signed up for St Neots. After taking a break from running from May-Sept to focus on timetrials, I aimed to build my run fitness back up in time for the event. This ended up being more difficult than I would have liked (running is definitely harder for me!) and was also happening at the same time as the cyclocross season, meaning a limited number of weekends to do long runs. I had a target time/pace in mind (1hr45 or 4:57min/km) but after a few sessions were harder than they should have been, I revised it somewhat, and even then my new target pace (of 5:05 or so) was getting hard to hold after 50 mins in a trial run session – not nearly long enough! I went into the race uncertain about how it would turn out, but after a decent taper was at least reasonably fresh.

Race day dawned, and after a traditional broken night of sleep I headed off to St Neots with my nutrition and pace plan (sort of). Two Catenary team-mates were also running, and it was nice to see them before the race and see how they were feeling. Megan and I made a last-minute decision to dump the baselayers we had intended to wear, as although it was still chilly the rain held off and the sun had come out. After a half decent warmup, I lined up on the start line and waited for the off, which eventually came, followed by a bit of a queue to reach the start line.

The race itself started nicely, a few hold ups behind slower runners in the first km or so and then I was able to settle into my pace. I’ve not run in a large group very often and I found other runners’ footfalls and breathing were distracting me from my rhythm – not an issue I’ve had before. It was nice to feel that I was running quietly in comparison though. The route was along roads that I know, albeit from riding timetrials along them (and often in the opposite direction) and there was a fantastic amount of support out on the road as well. I caught Nou around halfway and we ran together for a bit. It was the first time I’ve taken gels on the run and that went ok (I planned to have three along the route but two felt enough) and I had a couple of sips of water at two of the water stations. The route is somewhat undulating and I managed to hold back a little on the hills and make time back up on the downhills. Coming towards the last climb of the day and at a little over halfway, I was averaging 5.02min/km (faster than I imagined I would be able to) and feeling pretty good, so I took my second gel and resolved to hold it together to the top of the hill and then push on in the last 5 or 6 km and see what I could do. At the top we turned into a brisk headwind which made it harder to hold a higher pace. I tried to hide behind another runner which meant slowing again slightly (and I also stepped on his foot – sorry!) so in the end had to hit out myself. There was a BRJ runner ahead of me who had also raised his pace in the same way and I was a few seconds behind him all the way to the finish, which was a useful carrot to chase. The average pace kept improving, and I was hopeful of putting in a decent time. Finally into town and around the last corner and there was the very welcome sight of a) the finish line and b) Megan cheering me on. I stopped my watch dead on 1hr45 (and my official time was 1hr44:54 which I am extremely pleased about - the taper and race adrenaline got me to the time that I had originally targeted!

It was great to catch up with Megan and Nou afterwards (both of whom got PBs!) and then enjoy pizza recovery lunch with Megan back in St Ives.

Tim Phillips