Ealing Half Marathon Race Report

I signed up to run the Ealing Half Marathon about a month after finishing my last full marathon – a delightfully flat course in Manchester. One of the very first things that came up in conversations about the Ealing Half was: hills. As someone who has never really liked running up hills, this was not reassuring. So in the last few months, I have made a point of attending as much hill training as possible, as well as sticking semi-successfully to a training plan.

And the result? Well, either the training has seriously paid off, or someone was overselling the hills!

The Ealing Half Marathon took place last Sunday, and I can only praise it. From the course itself, to the organisation, to the support from the crowds, it was brilliant. Not to mention that it was close enough to home that I not only got to sleep in my own bed, I also didn’t have to get up any earlier than on a normal work day – always a benefit!

We headed off under a slight covering of cloud just after 9am, and spent the next few hours visiting Ealing as the sun gradually burnt them away. Spurred on by my brother, I had pushed myself as close to the start line as I felt I could – a few feet behind the 1:35 pacers, with the purple 1:30 flags in sight. Working backwards from my last marathon time and trying to factor in my training, I felt that 1:35 was a realistic goal, with 1:30 an ideal.

As usually happens in races of any size, it took a little while – nearly a minute in fact – to cross the line. That done, the pace started to pick up, and I let the crowd around me carry me forwards. In my experience, this means that I end up going faster than I initially plan. Certainly, the quick glance at my watch told me that I was moving at sub-7 minute miles, which made me a little nervous. But the pace felt comfortable and sustainable, and I decided to follow my usual race plan and race by effort rather than numbers: if it felt like I could hold it, I would.

By the second mile marker, I’d caught up with the 1:30 pace group, just in time to hit the first significant hill. And don’t get me wrong, it was definitely a hill. It just wasn’t as terrifyingly steep as I’d been anticipating (which is almost certainly down to doing some hill training in Richmond park – the hills there are a lot more daunting!). It helped being with the pace group at that point, because they helped drag us up the hill at a nice steady pace.

Then we hit the downhill and something happened that I certainly hadn’t expected. I sped up and started pulling away. The speeding-up-on-the-downhill part wasn’t too surprising, as I’ve always liked running down. But pulling away from the pace group was. And it made me nervous. I seriously considered reeling back the pace and staying with them, but I still felt so comfortable that doing so would have seemed like a cop out. After all, this was a race and the idea was to run as fast as possible, right?

And the rest of the race went much the same. I was ahead of where I expected to be, and felt like I could hold the pace I was at, for most of the race. I started to feel it more in the last two miles, and that’s when I had to buckle down to hold the pace, and try to focus on my surroundings rather than how tired I was. One advantage of running close to home is that there were plenty of member of my running club out to support us – and the cheers made a big difference in the last painful minutes!

End result: a time of 1:28:32, which is significantly faster than I’d ever hoped. It’s a new PB (though as I’ve only every run the distance as part of a full marathon before, that’s hardly surprising), and it sets the benchmark for next time. Because yes, despite the hills, I’m pretty sure I’ll be back next year, as long as I can fit it in!

Runner's Need Event

I’ve spent a lot of time reading about running – both online and in magazines. And I’ve spent a fair amount of time discussing running and training with friends and family. As someone with a scientific background, and who can, I’ll admit, get a little obsessive about things I’m interested in, I’ve always liked to know the whys and wherefores of my chosen sport.

So when I received an email a few weeks ago about a series of events being help by Runners Need to talk about running, I’ll admit I was interested. When I discovered that one of them was on an evening when I was actually free to attend, I signed up straight away. Which is why I found myself heading against the flow of commuters towards Victoria Station yesterday evening.

The event I attended was being held in the branch of Runners Need near Victoria Station. It was billed as an ‘Excusive women’s evening’ to talk about running. We were greeted with a glass of prosecco or a freshly pressed fruit juice (anyone want to guess which I picked? Here’s a hint…I don’t really like fruit juice…), a goodie bag filled with different energy and rehydration products to try, and a nice Runner’s Need t-shirt. And who doesn’t like a free t-shirt!

The rest of the evening consisted of three speakers, talking about training, injury prevention and equipment, with plenty of opportunity for questions and answers. First up was Nina Anderson, an athlete and running coach. She’s the European 400m veteran woman champion, and coaches a lot of athletes at a huge variety of distances. She talked to us about having goals and the importance of strength training, and how to make the most of the sessions that you have, even when you have to fit them in around work. For more information on Nina and more tips, here’s her website: http://www.ninaanderson.com/

Next up was Naeve from Pure Sports Medicine (http://www.puresportsmed.com/) who gave us a run down on the importance of conditioning and strength training to help prevent injury. She also ran through some of the common sports injuries – like patella-femoral syndrome and ITBS. This was followed by some more Q&A time, during which I was reminded of the importance of foam rolling even when not injured…

Finally, a Nike rep talked to us about two vital pieces of running equipment: sports bras and running shoes. The main take-away from the first half of the talk was to remember to get fitted and make sure you’re wearing the right bra for the job – apparently a poorly fitted bra can cost you up to 10 minutes (I’m not sure what distance this is over, or where that figure comes from!). The second part was about the difference between running and training shoes, and about why it’s sometimes necessary to have more than one pair of running shoes.

I have to admit, the last bit did win me over. I’d been thinking about it a bit before anyway. I currently have two pairs of the same shoes – Asics Gel Nimbus 17, if you’re interested. They’re good running shoes, and their really comfortable over long distances. However, I’ve recently started going to track sessions with my running club (of which more later), and my trusty Asics feel a little heavy on the track. So, with the words of the experts ringing in my ears, and a lovely one-night-only 15% discount on anything in stores…I have bought myself a pair of light weight running shoes for track sessions and short distances. I will report back once I’ve actually used them!

In summary, the evening was, in my opinion, a great success. The speakers were interesting, informative and approachable. And whilst I probably didn’t learn that much which was brand new, it did give me a chance to ask direct questions and get answers more relevant to me. I like Runners Need – they’re a good chain of shops which offer good advice and a great selection of running products. Now that I’ve discovered that they do events like this as well, I’ll be sure to pay a bit more attention to their newsletters in the future!