Milton Keynes...

Just back from a very sunny but cold Milton Keynes half marathon.

I finished in 2:04:20. A little disappointed as I'd hoped to break the 2 hour barrier, but still very pleased with how I ran, especially since the course, and especially the last mile, wasn't quite as "fast and flat" as promised in the pre-race publicity !

The rather cruel last mile apart, the course was actually very nice - a small section of running along closed off main roads for the first couple of miles, but after that the rest of the route was on cycle / foot paths which snaked their way around surprisingly pictureseque countryside, including a section around a lake which was really lovely.

The start was downhill and I missed the first mile marker - I'd intended to start slowly at around 9:30 miles but did the first 2 in 18 minutes and in spite of trying to slow down ran the next 2 in 18:06. However it all felt quite comfortable at that point but I'd probably taken a little more out of myself than I'd planned.

The next couple of miles were a little slower but I still passed the halfway mark in good time in exactly 1 hour. I averaged 9:30 for miles 8 to 11 meaning with a sprint finish I could still have got close to the 2 hour mark - but then the hills began: mile 12 took me 9:54 and I crawled up the mile towards the short finishing straight in 10:46. What felt like a sprint finish but when viewed on my parents-in-law's video afterwards looked like a very painful jog brought me home in 2 hours 4 minutes 20 seconds. Still a very respectable time for a first half-marathon.

Sophie had a great run and finished in 2 hours 16:35 - a personal best for her.

One lunchtime run this week together with the half-marathon added up to 17.1 miles for the week, and my total for the year is now 180.7