Worcester Half Marathon 2014

Here we go again! On Sunday I ran the Worcester half marathon for the 3rd year in a row, a few people had stated I was mad to do it more than once as it's such a tough hilly course but with it being on the doorstep it feels rude not to give it a bash every year. I had originally entered the full marathon but after London made the decision to drop down to the half and it turned out to be a good decision.

In the few weeks leading up to Worcester half I had joined my local running club The Black Pear Joggers and had been out on a few runs with them already including the magic mile challenge where I pulled out a 1 mile personal best of 7 minutes 55 seconds.. not without suffering pins & needles from my finger tips to my shoulders through lack of oxygen circulating around my body! I had made friends with Margaret who had never ran a race and had never ran over 10 miles, with very little convincing she decided to enter the race with four days to spare and I was looking forward to running with someone rather than on my own as I used to.

The morning started with the usual half mile walk to the rugby ground where we met up with the rest of the Black Pears and had our team photo taken.

I had asked Margaret if she had a time in mind for her first race and we decided I would help pace her around to a 2 hour 20 - 2 hour 30 finish time. My course record was 2 hours 17 but I knew I would be pushing trying to beat this time as the weather was due to be hot and sunny. We also met up with Jane who was running her first half marathon and she had the same time in mind so we started together.

The first 3 miles flew by sticking to the pace or better that I knew would see us to a 2:20 finish of 11.23 minute miles. Margaret and I lost Jane around mile 4 when she stopped for water and soon the hills started flowing, I had never really thought about how hilly the course was until a few people mentioned it prior to setting off.  By mile 6 I was glad I had dropped down to the half course as it was lovely to be able to run with company. Margaret and I continued running along at a faster pace than needed taking in the country side views and just enjoying ourselves. We were often cheered along by supporters as a pair of pears as the locals recognized the club running tops. There was even a Black Pear water station which was fab and our own photographer who almost caught me walking up a hill!

 We stayed together the whole course and at mile 8 were now overtaking a lot of runners that had set off too fast and by now were walking. We decided to power walk the hills and through the water stations and this worked very well for us. At mile 12 we came out next to the canal for the final stretch back to the rugby ground and I told Margaret to run on her own, I wanted her to get her own time. She finished in 2 hours 20 minutes and 20 seconds so turns out I'm not that bad at being a pacer though I'm sure she would have finished quicker if she had ran without me. I finished at 2 hours 21 minutes which I wasn't pleased with at the time but looking back at it now I can say I am happy with that time for the day and the course. Will I do Worcester again? Ask me again January 2015!