Wimbledon Half Marathon, 23 July 2023

It has been a big year of racing for me, starting with duathlons leading into Duathlon World Champs and then a bunch of university racing, with BUCS Triathlon more or less finishing my Tri season in June. Following BUCS, I was unwell and struggled to get back into training once I had recovered. I just felt mentally and physically fatigued. However, since I was already signed up for Wimbledon Half, I decided to do this race just for fun. I didn’t feel like racing at all but figured that instead of pulling out I could just take it as an opportunity to really enjoy a running race. No target pace. No internal pressure. Just pure fun.

The course was beautiful – two times around the same hilly, cross-country loop of Wimbledon Common, which despite growing up in London, I didn’t know existed! I was happy to have my boyfriend and support, Alex with me (as usual – thanks, Alex!), and I was feeling very positive and not at all nervous the morning of the race.

As usual for me in these longer races, the start felt slow: people were passing me on all sides, and I felt I was running very conservatively. I was glad I had assumed this tactic though because after the initial flat section, there was quite a sharp uphill, with around 50m of elevation gain. This didn’t faze me much as I’m relatively experienced with hilly courses and so I got my head down and plodded on, trying to keep my effort even. Interestingly, the second time round the loop, I actually went faster on this uphill.

It was quite a hot day, but thankfully most of the course was in woodland, except for a gruelling section in the sun in the middle of the race. Despite a relatively uncompetitive start on my part, just by maintaining my pace I found I was able to pick people off after a few kilometres. I was happy in my choice of shoe that morning: I had opted for trail shoes over a faster, lighter pair and I think this gave me additional comfort and stability as the ground was uneven and a few days of English summer weather (i.e. rain) had made the course really muddy.

The last kilometre of the loop was all downhill, which was great fun, and I just let the legs go and extended my stride as I was coming up to the halfway mark. There hadn’t been many spectators on the course, mostly just passing walkers who occasionally stopped to cheer, but all the family and friends of runners seemed to be congregated along the halfway stretch. Their cheers egged me on, and my smile grew even larger! That was when I heard the commentator say “and here comes our 3rd lady!”

This gave me another great boost and I felt ready to do it all again! I think the fact that I wasn’t looking at my watch for pacing gave me an advantage on a hilly course, because the times on the watch aren’t representative. Unlike many of the people I ended up passing, this meant that I didn’t fade too much, despite not having done many long runs in my lead up to the race. I felt quietly motivated to see if I could catch 2nd place but was also just content with my place and how I was running.

I didn’t catch sight of 2nd lady but finished very happily in 3rd. I didn’t look at my watch once and I couldn’t stop smiling the whole way round. Although this wasn’t my most competitive performance, I think this race marks an interesting turn in my evolution as an athlete. This year has been a bit crazy, and I’ve done things in triathlon I wasn’t sure were possible for me, especially not after a relatively short time in the sport, but I’ve also realised that I’m happier without so much (self-induced) pressure. Of course, I still want to be competitive, to be “in the race”, but I am really noticing the value in truly enjoying the sport, over obsessing over performance.

Emilia Miller