The Great South Run - 2018

I think it was the late start that did it. The white wave (predicting over 1 hour 30 minutes for the ten miles) did not get away until 10.52 am. You would not believe that in mid October it would be so warm. The skies had been cloudless for the last couple of days and so was Sunday. Absolutely gorgeous weather, just a t-shirt to the start and staying warm to meet up afterwards with many of Alison's friends from On The Run. So despite the heat for the run, I would not have swapped the whole experience.

Especially that the day before, walking along the Millennium Way in shoes I don't usually wear, I felt a pain in the bones of my right foot travel up my leg and stay there. It was there all the night before, but seemed better in the morning. However as soon as I started running, it was back, and stayed there for the first two miles. I was occasionally limping which was not good. I said to my self that if it got worse, I would have to stop. But after those first two miles it disappeared.

I was running at the pace I wanted: nine and a half minutes a mile. The idea was that I would ramp up the pace in the second half to the nine minute twenty second pace of last year. Given that I managed a nine minute and five second pace for the 10 K two weeks ago. So I was going along quite nicely, enjoying the support of the crowds, listening to the bands, and by half way felt fine. I had been dodging into shade wherever I could find it.

But miles six to eight became really hard. We were running parallel to the sea front with buildings on one side but no shade whatsoever. It was sheltered and very warm with no breeze. So instead of getting faster, I was getting slower. I watched as the pace on my watch went down and down. By mile eight I was at nine forty pace, which meant that I was running for the last two miles at ten minutes a mile.

Fortunately, as we turned to run along the seafront, there was some breeze, although still no shade. With a mile and a half to go there was some loud music. As I approached, A-ha broke into "Take on Me". What a brilliant running song, perfect for my stride pattern. It took me some way, and when out of earshot, I still sang it in my head. It got me to the line in 1 hour 37 minutes and 30 seconds. Over three and a half minutes slower than last year, but who cares. Yes, I do not run well in the sun, but I would take that over the gales of last year for all the reasons above.

A few stats. My place was 7,391 out of 15,853 runners and twelfth of 55 men in the 70-74 age bracket compared with being 16th out of 80 last year. So pretty comparable. There is a "Great For You"  scoring system with Silver being over 650 points. My 651 makes me laugh!