Report of my Blickling Spring Half Marathon Race. How close did I get to my intended 1:45?
Last Sunday I ran the Blickling Spring Half Marathon hosted by EPIC Norfolk at Blickling Hall. As mentioned in my pre-race article, this is a half marathon race around the beautiful country estate of Blickling Hall in north Norfolk, England.
Being only 7 days prior to the Wymondham 20 mile race next weekend (the next race in the Sportlink Grand Prix series of races), my intention was to run Blickling at a casual pace, treating it as a training run for Wymondham. My intended pace being around 5:00 min/km, for a time of about 1:45.
The course is described as ‘off-road’ and of ‘mixed terrain with a combination of hard wearing paths and a small section on road’. It is undulating, but not really any significant hills to climb, and the paths are a hard sandy surface, presenting no difficulty for fast running. In total the (quiet country) road section is around 6 km of the route. It’s one of those ‘almost 2 lap’ routes, where the second cuts a corner off, making it slightly shorter than the first.
I arrived in good time to collect my race number and bump into a few friends before the starting whistle. The weather, whilst feeling a little chilly before ‘the off’, was near perfect for racing, with only minimal breeze, to be of no concern.
The initial starting funnel away from the Hall is purposely on the narrow-side to permit passage-way through the main gates. Once out there is a short section of narrow country road before hitting the tracks and encircling the the estate.
Given the casual nature of my race, I was more than content to set-off a good way back from the start line. This did mean about 3 minutes of congestion before I could comfortable settle into my 5:00 min/km rhythm, but as I was under no time pressure I just took it as it came, and appreciated the scenery.
I’m sure many runners will understand, running a race casually is not as easy as it may seem, and does require constant self-checking. It is all too easy to get carried away in the moment and start speeding up. Overall I was pretty well disciplined, and even took it extra easy on the short inclines to counter those downhill speed-ups.
Such was this self-correction that at the 15 km marker I realised that I was around 1 minute behind my 1:45 schedule. I consequently decided to speed up a fraction, knowing that making up 60 seconds over 6 km would not be too problematic. This I did, and I hit the 20 km point in 1:39:50. Leaving a nice 5 minutes and 10 seconds to complete the final 1.1 km.
This final km was a thoroughly enjoyable section, where I had the energy to take in the crowds and the last of the scenery, including the great finishing straight heading directly towards the Hall. However, I could not resist a big final surge, hitting a peak pace of 2:30 min/km, finishing in a time of 1:45:01 with a smile. Job done.
A big thank you to the organisers and all the volunteers. The post-race nutrition was the best I’ve seen, and I’m sure very much appreciated by all. If this is to become your norm, I certainly won’t be able to resist signing up to next year!
Now it’s a week of relative rest in preparation for a biggie next weekend. Wymondham here we come…
Have a good week of training everyone. Bye for now.
