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Remember I mentioned previously about my “Delusions of Grandeur” having entered myself for a half marathon? Well, this time last week I was nursing aching muscles (and knees, and arches) having completed the Haweswater Half Marathon in 2 hours 13 minutes and 10 seconds. I placed 477 out of 511 finishers, and 328 out of 342 males. However I never entered expecting to place particularly highly – I’m happy to a) finished it and b) finished it in a time better than I expected (based on my training runs, I expected to finish around 2:14 and I set myself a goal of 2:20).

The race atmosphere is fantastic, and the course itself was beautiful running alongside Haweswater. I’ll definitely be entering another – I’m thinking about the Keswick Half Marathon, and considering the Brathay Windermere Marathon(!) over the next few months.

My longest training run before the race was 10.6 miles, so I was really feeling the last couple of miles, but I ran the majority of the race alongside a nice guy from Durham – John – who kept me going.

These Shoes Are Made For Running

I’d already been thinking about some new running shoes, but David’s comment reminded to actually do something about it, so I went to Lakes Runner in Ambleside to do the whole gait analysis thing (apparently I’m neutral) and came away with a pair of Brooks Glycerin 6 which are definitely more comfortable than my old Asics.

Let Down By Technology

Unfortunately my Garmin Forerunner 50 let me down 4.5 miles into the race, or rather the Footpod did, so I had no instant pace/distance readout and had to rely on the mile markers. Not a bad thing, but I did miss it. I believe it was the battery, because it has been working since I replaced it, but I don’t believe I’d used it enough to drain the old one. Ho hum.

Lessons Learnt

1. Structure my training more
2. Ensure I’ve run the full race distance at least once
3. Taper off more before a race
4. Check my batteries!
5. Blog about it in a timely fashion…