Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

The Other London Adventure

by Russell Turner - 16:03 on 16 March 2022

What with all the excitement of my London Marathon place, the small matter of my London Landmarks Half Marathon debut in a mere 17 days has been easy to overlook, especially as I’m not even running at the moment.

Its imminence was highlighted yesterday by an email containing further details of the start line arrangements, including my membership of the fourth wave of runners: seven in all ranging from Lightning to Diamond, starting at 10min intervals. An eighth, Covid wave, should be added if the tales of illness and incapacity raging through the Facebook support group are halfway true. Matchgirl will be watching the off from a cautious distance.

Each wave contains a variety of pacers. The estimated finish time I’d given was in the 2-2:15 range so I’d presumed I’d be allocated the Mexican wave (No3) with six pacers from 1:50 to 2:15, or Sunshine wave (No5), also with six, from 2:00 to 2:30.

At first I was rather miffed to find myself in Chocolate wave, with only two pacers: 2:10 and 2:15. However, on reflection it’s not a bad place to be as it removes the temptation to hang on to a 2hr pacer from the start and risk blowing up, disrupted training and HHS (Hurty Heel Syndrome) having made PB hopes unrealistic.

Pacers have caused some confusion among half marathon first timers, some of whom wondered if they were obliged to follow them. “That pace is too fast for me,” fretted some. “That’s too slow,” posted others. “Am I allowed to overtake them?” When informed that they’re there simply as guides, worries were eased.

I’ll see how I feel on the day before choosing anyone to follow or keeping to my own pace. I’m pleased to report that my right foot, which has given me most trouble recently, has settled down so much that the left is now the stiffer of the two, although both felt fine after today’s training walk. Despite that, I’ll stick to walks for the rest of the week and, all being well, attempt a short comeback run on Monday.

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