| Race Details | |
|---|---|
| Event | Admiral City of Newport Half Marathon |
| Date & Time | 05 March 2017 09:00:00 |
| Distance | Half Marathon |
| Type | Road Race |
| Time (PB) | 1:45:45 (1:30:28) |
This weekend it was the Admiral City of Newport Half Marathon. Another popular local race organised by St Davids Hospice Care. This year I was well aware that I was not in shape to run a PB so, I made the decision to use this as a long tempo run instead. This meant taking it steady(ish) right from the start. I parked up at Newport Stadium again this year with a view to walking over to the start as a bit of a warm up but, as usual, I was running a little late so I ended up jogging the 2 miles to the bag drop to make sure I got there in time. With my bag dropped off, I headed to the start line.
This year the race was started by Darren Campbell. We headed off towards the transporter bridge and
I settled into a good pace that I felt I could keep up for the duration, based on my running
recently. The race was going well, the sun was out, the crowds were cheering and I felt good. Coming
through Caerleon there was a lot of support from the club and the locals so it was good. The
wind was quite strong along the cycle path, but it wasn’t really an issue. The
1:35 pace group dragged me along for a little while, but I managed to let them go in Caerleon so I
had a bit more space. Unfortunately when I got to about 9 miles everything got a whole lot more
difficult! For some reason, my legs just seemed to give up the ghost and it was like I was trying to
run with lead boots. I really struggled with those last 4 miles and even walked for a fair bit. It
was not a pleasant experience, but I finished 
. I’m not entirely sure what happened given it
all seemed to be going well up to 9 miles. The only problem was that it took away from the enjoyment
of the event. St Davids Hospice Care have put together a good half marathon, the weather was
great (apart from some of the high winds we experienced), the medal and t-shirt were really nice,
but I didn’t enjoy the last couple of miles 
which is a bit of a shame.
Ah well, I just need to put this one behind me and start preparing for my next challenge, which is
the Gloucester City Marathon on 06 August 2017 at 08:00. I’m really looking forward to this
and to getting back into marathon training again. Hopefully this time, the course will have been
accurately measured 
.
Strava Details
Race Pictures
Image by Andrew Taylor via Facebook
Image by Sandra Webb via Facebook