Milton Keynes Half marathon 2016 - my race review

Crickey, I just found this lurking in my drafts folder. Given that Milton Keynes 2017 is not far away I thought I had better fling this out there before I end up over a year out of date...

My race review (Monday 2nd May 2016)

General impressions -
Course: 8/10 - simple, quick, well sign-posted and marshalled. Couple of sections where the footing was a bit rough moving between road and park land paths.
Marshalling: 9/10 - great, cheery and friendly team. Though not particularly evident around the start area which seemed a little odd given the congestion.
Facilities: 8/10 - The stadium facilities are great. Though I did have to play hunt the shortest bathroom queue a couple of times, which is tricky when they are spread around the perimeter of the stands.
Organisation: 9/10 - I didn't enjoy the lack of marshalling in the start zones, but the overall experience from sign up to finish line is very well done. The team clearly benefit from the experience of becoming a calendar regular.
Crowd / support: 8/10 - always an enthusiastic and supportive crowd in Milton Keynes. Even the car drivers put out by road closures were relatively jolly, or at least that was what I told myself as I smiled and waved a "thank you" to them.
My effort: 10/10 - I could not fault my effort on the day (I could fault my pre-race training), my pacing was spot on and I was realistic about my target.

Half-marathon #11

How my run went: 

"It went really well, curbed my enthusiasm at the start, enjoyed the middle, and only really entered the hurt locker for the last 2km. Time not stellar but a good improvement on four weeks ago. The half marathon course at least was definitely an improvement on past years - only two major underpasses that I remember, and no gradients that went on long enough or were steep enough to cause much discomfort."

Small steps = many steps

Small steps are required to build anything and in my case the small increments towards getting back to running a 'good' marathon really are small. I am walking and moving a lot more than I was and feeling the benefit. In getting my day to day activity back on track I have had to make sure that I don't cram on top of it a mass of run (or any other) training sessions. It is very much that case that in the past I started a running training programme at the same time as massively increasing my daily activity levels - walking every staircase, walking to work, doing extra bits and pieces every which way leading to 'burn out'. So for now I am laying lots of small steps down in order to ensure that a training plan will have a better chance of injury free success, and it is taking patience.

Instagram photos from the last couple of productive weeks

So what are the many steps? Well in a quick list they are:

1. shedding some timber - losing unnecessary fat mass, which is going well having lost 7 lb in the last two weeks - there is no point training hard and losing weight at the same time it is too much stress on the body and in my experience that way deep fatigue and illness lie. Giving up chocolate and cheese for lent has certainly helped hugely (!).
2. walking in lieu of run sessions - building time on my feet to strengthen my musculoskeletal system gradually. Over time I will convert some to runs and mix them up.
3. joining a running group / club - I have tried out one (Maindy Harriers Running Club) and try another one tonight (Pegasus Running Club) . It looks like I'm being choosy but there are several good groups nearby and each have different pros and cons, both groups have been incredibly kind when I have approached them. This time next week I hope to have settled upon one and 'signed up'.
4. laying off my marathon ambitions to next year - I will still run one or two this year but for the fun and not for goals.
5. finding variety - backing up recent swimming classes with some semi-regular swims.
6. enjoying and not 'racing' parkrun 5k runs.
7. relaxing - giving myself permission to be flexible and not tied to a fixed programme for the time being.