The Birthday Present
My main goal for this event that was a training run for me, was to get my brother across the line in under two hours, and I was determined. If I paced us correctly I would be able to help my brother attain something he had said on numerous occasions, that with his style of running would not be able to achieve.
The Night Before
Arriving in Norwich to see my Brother, his wife and two fantastic kids we prepared the only way possible, a Mexican Fiesta. Chilli, rice, wraps, quesadilla's and birthday cake to follow. We had loaded on carbs and protein like champions and nothing could stop us tomorrow. I had checked the weather prior to coming down to Norwich and it had indicated that the rain would only start around 3pm, which meant we could finish the race, get freshened up and go out for tea before even considering getting wet....it lied!
When we left my brothers house to call it a night and get some decent sleep the whole city had been blanketed in a soft, white, cold substance, snow! How were we to attain the sub two hour run now whilst running in wellies? How could we focus on this prestigious time whilst throwing snowballs at each other. The challenge had become more difficult.
I fell into a slumber, thinking of the 13.1 miles ahead of me, thinking of run that lay ahead of us.
Race Day
The first thing I did when I woke up was run to the window and open the curtains, what winter wonderland awaited outside? Thankfully, the snow had stopped falling during the night and had turned to cold rain.
When we arrived at the Race Course, the weather had cleared a little but it was still fresh and cold. We donned our black bin bags and headed for the sheltered areas. With 3,500 runners expected for the event, things were pretty busy everywhere you looked, but seemingly well organised. People flowed in the right directions, very little stress, all just hoping for a little ray of sunshine.
As the official start time of 10:30 was nearing we headed to our timing pen. 1:45 - 2:00 hrs. We had positioned ourselves ready to hit the target time and Bro had tweeted his anticipated time to his followers, the followers that had supported him through his IronMan campaign, he could not let them down.
The countdown began, 10, 9, 8, 7, sunshine through the clouds, 6, 5, 4, rain stopped, 3, 2, we were off.
See you in less than two hours!
With the rolling start slowing plodding towards the start line, 3,500 runners all bleeping their watches to commence as soon as they reached the mark. It took us a good couple of minutes to hit the point of no return and set off on our journey. I had set the pace on my watch to be the slowest minutes per mile, the pace that would get us 1:59:59, anything quicker would get us across the line with ease.
The first couple of miles looped around the showground and the puddles from the snow storm the night before were epic. Some runners decided that sopping socks would have little effect on their long game and splashed through the middle with no care, others daintily fluttered on the outskirts of the mini lakes hoping to protect their favourite trainers and sock from becoming drenched, blister inducing sponges. We were plodding along, but not in a comfortable pace as the amount of runners in front of us were all still bunched.
Once out of the showground things seemed to spread out a little. We found our pace and settled in for the journey. With me not knowing the road maps of Norwich, each turn was new, unknown if it was to be hilly, undulating or daunting, but then I remembered I was in Norfolk and there is no local word for "hill". Our first 5k came in at 27 minutes, running at a steady pace of 9 minute miles, we were bang on target.
I had spotted in the crowd at the starting line, a group of lads in yellow grass skirts and wigs and had set it in my mind that I would not finish behind them. I expressed this concern to my bro indicating that at some point, through the next 10 mile, I would like to pass this jolly bunch and maintain our lead in front of them. This was nothing against the runners themselves as they were all in fancy dress running for charity as a group, it was just a target. My good friend Rosh always sets targets for his runs and this gives him a little burst of energy when each target is passed. I wanted to use this method to try and motivate bro to keep his pace and forget about running.
The 10k mark was reached with a sub 1 hour run, and bro's heart rate was still in a comfortable zone. My bro retrained his metabolism for the Iron Man and works more on heart rate and zones rather than pacing. So he knows how he is going to perform by which zone his heart rate is in. He told me that once it reaches 170+ then it will be the last bit of his energy and from that point on it is touch and go. At the 10k mark we were sitting comfortable in the 150 zone.
Around the 9 mile mark, the roads became a little undulating. Our pace was still good, still around the 9 mins per mile range, but with the Norfolk ups and down ahead Bro was feeling the strain, we had moved towards the latter end of the 150's, but there was only 4 mile left.
The 11th mile brought a little fear to most of the runners, something that the Norfolkers call a mountain arrived, at least a 70ft elevation gain. Thankfully, being a Bolton lad, hills are common on all my runs. As I leave the house I am presented with a 2 mile, 400ft gain hill before I even start my run. I hadn't realised, even though I complain every time I take on this perilous task, how much it had been benefiting me. I increased the length of my stride, raised my knees and maintained my cadence and within seconds I was upon it's crest. When I turned round to talk to my brother he was nowhere to be seen. Looking around with panic, I saw his face, in pain, straining, this mountain was defeating him. I eased back and joined him, trying to maintain the pace but Mount Norwich had taken it's toll. Bro's heart rate had increased to the beyond, we had hit mid 170's this was it, the final couple of miles were going to be purely mental.
As we re-entered the showground the finish line was in sight, although we had to do a couple of loops before crossing, I looked at my watch, 1:50:12. We had 10 minutes to cross the line, 10 minutes, surely that would not be an issue. Using the Rosh target running, ahead of me I saw Captain America. Looking a little worse for wear, I knew it was an easy target but one that my geeky brain needed to take. As I passed him, I uttered the words "On your left!" and giggled to myself. 12 .5 miles in and I was feeling great, still laughing and joking. My training had paid off. The opposite could be said my for bro. As I turned round again to see how he was doing I noticed that he had adopted a Ray Charles running style. He was running blind, eyes closed, focused on the goal ahead, but time was running out. I sidled over and told him to push, push, push. We were not going to be defeated by time at such a late stage.
With metres to go we felt a sudden surge from all the runners around us, the prestigious sub two hour marker was nigh and every one was trying to achieve it at once. Unfortunately, there had been an incident a few minutes after we had arrived in the show ground and one of the competitors had suffered a serious heart failure and collapsed within metres of the line. He was being stretchered from the course and chaperoned by marshals shouting "Slow down" to the runners hurtling towards them with one goal in mind. I pushed my brother to the far side of the emergency scene knowing that he must attain the finish time. I slowed and found a safe passage through before sprinting as fast as I could to catch up. My thoughts go out to Mike, and you will be happy to know that he has recovered fully, I know his intentions were not to cause hurdles on the final section of my brother's sub two hour half marathon, so I can forgive him....(please note, this is a joke and I do wish him all the best!)
We crossed the line, I stopped my garmin watch and looked down....2 hours, 0 minutes and 4 seconds.....surely not, this cannot be! I then got a notification, New Record! Furthest distance 13.19 miles.....that means we hit the half marathon .08 miles ago, that was around the time I passed Captain America! Does that mean we did it? Only the official results will tell.
On checking the official website my heart sunk. The provisional times had us finishing at 2 hours 2 minutes and 22 seconds. We knew it was a rolling start and the time only officially started as we crossed the start line, but how long did it take for us to do that?
Unfortunately, we received a message from the organisers of the event, due to the bad weather some of the start times had been lost forever, they were not coming back. The provisional times they had provided would be the only times that could be used.
Thankfully, I can proudly state that on my way back "oop north" to the promised land I received a notification from my brother. He had plugged his Garmin watch into the computer to review the stats and confirmed two things.
1) His heart rate for the final mile was near 190 beats, I think a few more beats and he would have been in the same situation as Mike
2) He had a new personal best over a half marathon distance
Best estimated half marathon effort (1:59:23)
Congratulations Bro!
Speedy Recovery Mike
On your left Captain America
The Larking Gowen City of Norwich Half Marathon is a great event with a superb course, very well organised and one that I would love to do again and aim for a personal best.
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