This past Sunday, I competed in the Derby Half Marathon with the goal of finishing in under 80 minutes, aiming to beat my personal best of 82 minutes. Training had been going well leading up to the race, despite a slight tightness in my right calf that seemed to resolve once I warmed up. On race day, Anna joined me for support 🥰. We arrived early, which made the starting area pleasantly uncrowded.
I set off and completed my warm-up around the city, incorporating a few drills and strides. As I returned to the starting area, Anna wished me luck before heading off for her own run to explore Derby 😘. I entered the starting pen and noticed Paralympian Richard Whitehead was also racing. We shook hands and wished each other luck.
The sub-80-minute pacer arrived, and after a brief chat, the gun went off. I felt confident I could achieve my goal, aiming to maintain a pace of 6:04 minutes per mile. The race began, and I quickly settled into my rhythm. The first mile was faster than usual, fueled by the energy and excitement of the start, as everyone jockeyed for position.
To my surprise, within the first mile, my friend Alex appeared alongside me 😂. I hadn’t realized he was racing too, and he was also aiming for a sub-80 finish.
As the race progressed, I maintained consistent mile splits from 1 to 6. The first half of the course wound through the city, while the second half took us through a park and along the canal. However, the second half of the race presented a different challenge. As I turned into the park, I lost contact with the pacer and the four other runners. Despite my efforts, I couldn’t catch up to them.
Instead of panicking, I focused on maintaining my own pace, which had unfortunately dropped from 6:04 to between 6:20 and 6:35. From around mile 8, I found myself running solo, and the race turned into a grueling time trial. I was hurting by this point, but I kept pushing and ticking off the miles. A couple of runners passed me, but I managed to catch up with one of them.
This section of the race was quite lonely, as I mentioned before. There weren’t many spectators, other racers, or even marshals around, so I had to stay mentally strong. It reminded me of running along the canal in my hometown of Grantham, where I’ve been doing a lot of my long runs recently 😂. That memory kept me going!
As we reentered the city, the first part was eerily quiet, almost like a regular day. There weren’t many racers ahead of me, and there was little support. The route was taped off, so I just about knew where to go.
Approaching the start/finish line, the support picked up, and I spotted Anna, which was so nice to see. I tried to rally and increase my pace, but I had nothing left, so I just kept it consistent.
Crossed the line in 1:23:01 not the time I wanted on the day, nor a Pb but reflecting back on things now, I gave that everything on the day, I knew I did, and I suffered the next day as I was tight I could barely run, had to shake my legs out on the spin bike 😂
It was so lovely seeing Anna at the finishing line cheering me in, thank you babe xx
It’s on to the next one which is Splisby Show 10k, and next week starts the beginning of Marathon training! 😧 😂
The Life Of A Masters Athlete 
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