Daily archives: September 25, 2012

Report from Craig. For those of you who dont know, Dumfries is my home town and I have ran the half marathon twice before. They were both a disaster and resulted in two of my worst races, so I thought it was about time to go back and give it another go. With 42 miles in my legs from the previous weekend and a disappointing parkrun time the day before I settled into the front/middle of the pack on the start line. In my last couple of half marathons I have set off a bit quickly and felt like I suffered later in the race so today decided to go off at a steady pace, especially knowing the undulating nature of the course. By mile 3 I was sitting just outside the top 10. I was concerned about trying to race so quickly after such a long run the week before so thought this would be a good place to stay. Maybe it was my new trainers or maybe a moment of madness but I decided not to settle, to have a real go and see how close to the leaders I could get. The front three had set off at some pace and were nowhere to be seen. As I moved up to 8th I could see another group of three runners in the distance followed by the purple Bella vest of Brian Lamb in 7th. I knew Brian had ran well at the GSR so I would be doing well to get near him let alone those in front. Miles 4.5 – 6.5 are mainly uphill, some steep and some not so bad but I steadily chased down those in front. As they say, what goes up must come down and a nice 5:28 mile between 7-8 saw me move into 7th as one of the runners in the second pack dropped back. My legs felt really strong and any thoughts of fatigue from the River Ayr Way ultra were well out of my mind. By 9.5 miles Brian had caught up with the runners in 4th and 5th and I made an effort to move with him and we went by them together. At mile 10 I edged ahead of Brian. Having spent the whole race chasing other runners I suddenly found myself in 4th and became conscious that if I slowed slightly then those behind me were going strongly and I would drop back. Mile 10-11 had a few more uphill sections and I began to feel the first signs of tiredness. That soon disappeared though as I got my first glimpse of the runners in 2nd and 3rd – although they looked far too far ahead to catch. Mile 11 was a fast downhill mile, I could hear Brian’s footsteps behind me and knew I would have to push if I was to hold him off and take 4th place. Little did I realise we had both made up good time on the 2nd and […]