Poppy Half Race Report

Race three of four (see: Beachy Head & Box Hill Ballbuster) was the Poppy Half in Bexhill-On-Sea. Held annually on Remembrance weekend, the Poppy Half commemorates the First World War and raises money for worthy charities.

Last year I trained for and ran the Half as my first ‘proper’ race at that distance. I have completed Halfs (I know that looks wrong but ‘Halves’ looks wronger 😀) in the past but I haven’t trained adequately, or I've aimed to finish. Last year I raced the distance and completed it in 1:38:02.

This year, as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, my training has been somewhat different. Running took a backseat after Hastings Half in March and, truth be told, has hardly spent more than a long weekend in the front seat. Cycling has been my main form of training with running ticking along in ‘maintenance mode’.

There’s no doubt I would get faster by running more but I have struck a good balance between enjoying the training (I’ve averaged over 12 hours per week this year) and recording personal bests. At some point I’ll need to run more to keep this up, but I enjoy cycling so why not continue this hybrid approach until it stops working?

Pre-Pre-Race

Last week’s duathlon left me dead on my feet. I went for a longer-than-sensible recovery ride on Monday then took Tuesday off due to overwhelming fatigue. I did a light yoga session, stretching and mobility work on the Wednesday evening. Thursday I cycled the 40-mile round trip to Greenwich, albeit at a snail’s pace. Friday I did an easy 5k with a few strides interspersed.

The Half begins at 12.30pm – a peculiar time to start a race (they have a child’s, 5k, and 10k race before). The extra few hours between waking up and racing are entirely redundant and impossible to get anything productive done.

I met up with Robin, Hannah, and Matt who were also doing the Half, and we went through our individual warmup routines. The ball of my left foot felt tender. I took off my shoe and kneaded the sensitive area with my fingers. It just felt a bit odd. If it was my feet’s way of complaining that they don’t usually wear these extra-light racing shoes this frequently, they’d be well within their rights to do so; I usually race once a month, not once a week.

There’s an old adage about not trying anything new on race day, because you don’t know how your body will react, which is why you should try it in training. I had one SIS gel left over from last week’s race and decided to take it before the start rather than during. I technically haven’t done this before but it didn’t feel like a massive gamble as I’ve used the gels enough to know how I respond.

Course

The course is two five-mile loops with a five-kilometre loop to finish. Bear with me for this:

·      Start to end of West Promenade: 1.5 miles west.

·      West Promenade to end of East Promenade: 2.5 miles east.

·      East Promenade to West Promenade: 2.5 miles west.

·      West Promenade to end of East Promenade: 2.5 miles east.

·      East Promenade to West Promenade: 2.5 miles west.

·      West Promenade to Finish: 1.5 miles east.

Does that make sense? The Start/Finish area is passed four times during the race.

One in-the-know fellow competitor tipped us off about loose shingle along the West Promenade. A useful tip to receive, for sure, but also useless in the sense that there’s nothing we could’ve done at that point. Nice thought I suppose. Now I don’t usually complain about the race organisation as I’m sure it’s a lot of hard work, logistics are tricky, etc. but… I did think leaving a section of the course strewn with beach debris was poor. When you factor in the repetitive element of the course, that section comes to six kilometres (3.5 miles). The affected area was less than a mile, and it would only have taken two people with wide brooms a total of twenty minutes to clear a section wide enough to accommodate runners.

The weather was a balmy 13 degrees, with a strong westerly wind though the forecast rain DNS.

Pre-Race

Last year I got to the start line too late, and spent most of the first mile trying to pass people. This year I decided to start three rows back – my rule-of-thumb is to start where I think I’ll finish. Last year I finished 55^th and, if I had run 1:32-1:34 I’d have come somewhere between 30^th and 35^th.

I used my HR to gauge my effort last year and averaged 177bpm, with 70 minutes at 85-90% max, and 26 minutes at >90%. These numbers probably won’t mean an awful lot to you. They’ll provide context for the numbers to come…

Hopes, Dreams, Ambitions

·       PB (1:34:48) – 7:15/mile pace.

·       Sub-1:33 – 7:06/mile pace.

·      A bath that cocoons my body in warm water whilst keeping my hands dry to read and/or use technology.

Two weeks ago I ran a 5k PB of 19:56 which extrapolates to a 1:31:35 Half – this is theoretically my best case scenario. That would mean running at 6:59 pace. Scary! Obviously I wasn’t in peak shape coming into the race, with inadequate recovery from exploits of previous weekends.

Showtime

The race began and I was immediately swamped by people hammering it past me. Happy to let them go, I settled into a comfortable pace. The first mile (7:03) flew by and those of a similar pace established a small group. The wind didn’t feel too strong but I had positioned myself behind and to the right of the runner in front to lessen its impact.

The second mile finishes on the only hilly part of the course – 3% for roughly 400 metres. I negotiated it well and felt fine splitting 7:10 for mile two. The shingle wasn't ideal but everybody was in the same boat.

Mile three included the corresponding downhill section and back on to the flat with a tailwind. I saw 6:48 and knew I was running too fast but I decided, in that moment, to be bold, be aggressive, and see what would happen. I have finished races and felt I might have been too conservative. That wouldn’t happen today.

Mile four came and went with not a lot happening (that could be said about most of the course in all honestly) in 6:58, again fast but I had the wind behind me and was committed to my new strategy.

The second turnaround came as I began the fifth mile and though the strong wind was now in our faces again, I once more used the runners around me to shield myself. I was very happy to see 7:04 on my watch, with my legs feeling surprisingly okay, even if my breathing wasn’t as comfortable as normal.

Mile six is essentially the same as the first mile, clicked off in 7:13. Nothing much to say.

Halfway during mile seven we did yet another 180, back into the headwind and up a bit of the hill. 7:34.

Mile eight, like the third mile, was nice and fast for the same reasons though I found myself alone with nobody close behind or ahead. 7:02.

It was during mile nine, around the hour mark, that I started to feel my earlier efforts. I both love and hate the Half distance because it rewards/punishes you for proper pacing. Ordinarily I would feel fine at this point but now I knew I was in trouble. 7:13 isn’t a bad split but considering I had run the sixth mile – into a headwind – at the same pace, alarm bells started ringing.

Mile 10 – back into the headwind, I made a marked effort to push ahead and close the gap to gain an aerodynamic benefit. I soon passed the guy and, inevitably, was alone again. 7:16.

The wheels started to come off during the eleventh mile. I had nobody to draft off of, or to keep pace with, or even to try to catch. I don’t know if it’s because I’m relatively new to running or mentally weaker, but I just cannot run as fast solo as with others. I really had to work hard to even maintain any kind of rhythm, fighting the wind. The 7:43 split was disappointing and I just clung to the hope that I could muster a strong final mile-and-a-half to the finish.

Before that I had mile 12, AKA mile two AKA mile seven. Half of it into a headwind, and the other half uphill. I spent about thirty seconds trying to reattach my race number which had come loose, probably costing ten to fifteen seconds. 7:55.

With a mile to go, I knew I had nothing to lose by running as hard as I could – I wouldn’t blow up at this point, I had enough in my legs to see me to the finish line. I focused on maintaining a good form, tried to keep my head up, stride long, and pump with my arms, and actually felt like I was doing okay. With 400 metres to go I was passed by a guy and tried to stick with him. We ended up having a sprint up the finishing chute which, brutally, had two 90 degree turns. He dropped me like a bad habit on the first and I gave everything to get back to him but it wasn’t enough. Great fun to finish in that way, and I shook his hand to congratulate him. 6:56.

I finished in 1:34:19, 29 seconds faster than Hastings HM. My immediate feeling was disappointment as I feel capable of running a high 1:32, but it is important to put the performance into context with the last two races and the windy conditions. Mustn’t put my nose up at a PB, though!

During the race I had Heart Rate Monitor issues. It wasn’t working accurately for the first two miles. The data from miles 3-13 inclusive excluding mile 12 was accurate, and were as follows: 180, 176, 182, 183, 178, 179, 177, 183, 179, 184, 189. Average for those: 181bpm. Nothing if not aggressive!

What’s next?

A sprint duathlon (2 mile, 10 mile, 2 mile) at the Velopark in Stratford where I’d like to finish quicker than 54 minutes.