Wharfedale Half Marathon

I entered this one by mistake. I'd been after running the full marathon for a couple of years, having heard it's a really nice course. As soon as entry opened this year I was there with my SIEntries login, clicking through the process and thinking 'any minute now it's going to ask if I want the half or the full'. It never did. When I looked at the first page again, it told me the full had been cancelled - I'd just been in too much of a hurry to read it properly.

Since there are no refunds, I asked around a few times if anyone wanted to take my place, and by the end of May no one had. So last week I thought 'sod it, I'll run it'.

Since it was about 22km, which is about normal for my training routine friday/saturday, I decided to just slot it in rather than trying to prepare for it. So wednesday I did my usual "10km/200m in the morning, 25km/600m in the evening", but as I'm trying to con my body into burning fat more easily, I didn't nosh loads of carbs wednesday, as a result of which I ran out of steam on the final ascent of wednesday evening.

Back to the Wharfedale. I'd thought fairly major glycogen depletion 2 days earlier might have been a problem, but it didn't cause me any bother. I've noticed this before - pushing myself hard on alternate days (with cycling on the other days) seems to make me feel stronger when running, especially on the ascent.

The weather forecast was shocking - thunderstorms and heavy rain. I was carrying:

• gloves,
• buff, 
• waterproof jacket
• map
• route description
• drysac with my van keys in

I'd thought about running with my waterproof on, but was glad I didn't - it was sweltering, just wet. I started right at the back, with a vague idea of trying to keep below 6mins per km throughout. By halfway I was doing sub 5:30 kms and it was obvious I could keep that pace up comfortably. Apologies to anyone who was labouring uphill, only to be passed by me barely breathing heavily - I really didn't know what pace I could do on a half.

The course grinds slowly uphill from Threshfield, onto the moors above Conistone, then plunges fast down through Conistone, across the river, and up Mastiles Lane. I managed to run most of the way up Mastiles, dropping to a fast walk for about a 100m steep stretch. Tough going though. Then down to Bordley and straight back up to Height Laithe.

Crossing the bridge at Conistone, photo courtesy of Woodentops

As it turned out, the rain didn't really get going until I reached Bordley - about 7km before the end. It did make the stile before checkpoint 3 at Height Laithe very slippy though, and I fell heavily, leaving a large bruise on my thigh. The marshal helped me up, bleeped my SI card, and off I went again, across Boss Moor (where a blister started to make itself known, but with 5km to go, who cares) and down the lane to Threshfield, finishing in 1:54 - about ten minutes faster than I expected :-)

Putting some effort into the last kilometre, photo courtesy of Woodentops

It was a very different atmosphere to the various marathons, LDWAs etc I've done. Faster running, less talking, a bit more competitive. An excellent and extremely well organised run though.

 Many thanks to the organisers and marshalls for putting on such a good event.

GPS track here:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/516971873