UKC

Anyone else doing the Sheffield Half on Sunday ?

How's the training going ? Any last minute advice ?

I've not followed any particular training plan but it seems to have managed to peak around the right time - did a parkrun PB last sat (24.06), did 20k a couple of weeks back, done most of the hill from town.

My inclination is to do some light runs this week - did 3 miles this morning, will do the same this evening, maybe do the same on Friday - is this a good plan ?

In reply to Chris the Tall:

You will know how long your legs take to recover. I'd probably do 5 miles Thursday, with at least a few miles at half marathon pace, maybe a very light jog on Saturday. It's all very personal though.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

No one else doing it ?

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Good luck Chris.

Light running sounds good, important to keep moving but not get too tired - but everyone seems to taper differently.

I'm assuming you've got a target in mind so focus on sticking to your race plan. I do a bit of race visualization which sounds silly but works for me!

In reply to Chris the Tall: who remembers the horrors of the Barnsley half?

In reply to Chris the Tall:

How did it go?

In reply to wbo:


I only ran the Barnsley 6, did the half go over High Hoyland?

In reply to Chris the Tall: no idea, but it was super bumpy - thackerys 61'04 was a truly world class performance.

I ran the 6 as well. That was hard work also

In reply to wbo:

Yeah that would be it then, High Hoyland's a fair climb which ever way you go, I remember my old mate Dave Green ran the Marathon which was two laps. Yeah 6 was hilly but nothing like the half.

In reply to mountainbagger:

I did it as well. Enjoyable, and sub 2 hours which I wasn't expecting given the hill (though only just - 1:59:58!). Only problem was the incredibly disorganised start, and I have heard reports of the bag drop being a problem but we left stuff in the car.

Neil

In reply to mountainbagger:

1.51 - pretty chuffed, would have been happy with anything under 2. Suffered a bit towards the end, but kept up a steady pace.

Amazing level of support from people on the roadside - truely inspiring. And lots of jelly babies on offer.

In reply to Neil Williams:

Well done on getting under the 2 hour mark - did it require a sprint finish ?

Yep, saw the long queues for the baggage and the loos, fortunately didn't need either as I work nearby. I believe the delay at the start was caused by cars on the course (eccy road ?) which was out of the organisers hands

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Cheers.

Yeah, I'd more or less run out of energy, a fair bit of walking on the last bit, but when I rounded the corner and saw the time I did have a bit left for a quick sprint to finish it off!

I was expecting something like 2h15 because of the hill at the start, but (being quite heavy and having very long legs) I found I had somewhat of a gravitational advantage on the long downhill stretches in the second half

Neil

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Good effort. You lot (the runners) nearly made my son late to a 9 year old birthday party playing laser quest, because with the ring road part closed I had no bloomin' idea how to drive him through the city centre to the place! I'm finding my way through the centre by bike ok nowadays but still virtually never go there by car.

Must have been very windy while you lot were out running. Chapeau!

In reply to Chris the Tall:
Yeah, I saw those with tickets attached to them on the way past

I didn't so much mean that as the fact that the starting groups were seemingly completely random rather than being based on your expected time (if you weren't in the elites group). A friend (who sometimes posts here) was a bit hacked off about this as he had to do a lot of overtaking at the start when if he'd been in the right place he wouldn't have had to. There was also a bit of a disconnect between different marshalls - some were letting people move forward, some weren't (and were being quite surly about it). Didn't affect me (I started, by random fortune rather than much else, in about the right place) but it will have annoyed many.

As for the bogs and parking etc, we headed in very early (we arrived about 7:40), parked in the station car park (which seemed to stay quite quiet) and had a cup of tea in the station cafe before using the station bogs. 20p well spent I think

In reply to TobyA:


It was a bit, but as I tend to get far too hot when running it was quite pleasant (especially when on your back on the way back in). Might well have contributed to my time, as it's normally overheating rather than running out of energy that causes me to slow down a lot.

In reply to Neil Williams and Chris the Tall:

Well done guys

I had the Brighton Marathon today but it did not go well (by my standards). An inexplicably poor show. Glad to hear you had a better day!

In reply to mountainbagger:

Doubt I could do a full marathon yet (other than walking it) so well done anyway

In reply to Neil Williams:

Aah yes, I could see it was a bit poor at start, although it didn't affect me. I had a blue number, and although it wasn't obvious how to get into the pen, once there I was over the start line in less than a minute. However the fact that I was overtaken far more often than I overtook, despite going faster than my expected time, is a bit odd.

In reply to mountainbagger:

Will not being doing a full marathon - and not planning to sign up for another half anytime soon - so well done and don't be so hard on yourself!

In reply to Chris the Tall:
The colours were random, it seems, not based on time. I was green.

In reply to Neil Williams:

In which case that was a bit crap. I was stood next to a sign saying sub 110 mins at the start, so I assumed it was planned that way.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Well done Chris, I remember you saying that you'd like sub 2hrs - 1:51 is well under!

I think quite a few of us probably set off with expectations of a tough, slow run - given the nature of the course. But a lot of people I know seem to have run quite a bit quicker than they expected. So perhaps not such a slow course after all?

In reply to Chris the Tall:
They had pacers within the colour groups (who had the signs), but then to start they just whacked it all together which mixed people up, rather than all 1:50 people being in the same colour group etc. which would have made sense.

In reply to Dave Todd:

Sshhhh ! I'm telling people that it was 10% slower than a flat course and my time was 1.40 in real terms

Anyway, how did you do ? You were aiming for 1.45 weren't you ?

In reply to Chris the Tall:

I was well chuffed to dip in at 1:39:43. I'd been hoping maybe to get 1:45, but had mentally set myself a 'gold standard' of getting below 1:40. With about 4 miles to go I realised that sub 1:40 might be on, so I completely buried myself, must have looked a complete state...

I almost made a big mis-judgement when I followed the '115' flag for the first mile or so (having somehow thought that '115' equated to 1h45m...) Found myself running along thinking 'feeling good, pace feels fine...' before I realised my mistake, phew.

In reply to Dave Todd:

Well done!

In reply to Dave Todd:

99 minutes - well done indeed. Yep, mental arithmetic can be a bit tricky. I was trying to work out if 1:50 might be doable, but neither my brain nor my legs were responding.

In reply to Chris the Tall:


One of my pet hates is having to spend the first mile (4 miles if it's Leeds Abbey Dash) overtaking people who have gone nearer to the front than there ability will allow them to run. If the organisation of the race contributes to that, even worse.

In reply to Chris the Tall:


I do this all the time, even in training (can't help it - sort of obsessive mind and I like numbers/stats), so in a completely addled state towards the end of a marathon, I will work it out without necessarily wanting to. Consequently, yesterday, I ended up pressuring myself to get under some arbitrary time plucked out of the dregs of a less than perfect race. I suppose it helped me get to the finish!