SRG Race Report: Colchester Half Marathon
This weekend (Sunday March 25th) I ran my sixth Colchester Half Marathon. This is my home town race and it’s one that I’ve entered every year since 2013.
The race is organised by Colchester Colne Round Table and every year they manage to make it a little better. It’s a great course, starting and finishing at the local football stadium (no not the impregnable fortress that was Layer Road, but the new Weston Homes Community Stadium on the outskirts of town).
Whilst this has the disadvantage of not being made of wood and corrugated iron, like its illustrious predecessor, it does boast everything you need for staging a great start and finish to a race, including ample toilet facilities.
So at 9am on Sunday morning I was lining up with 4,000 other runners ready to take on the 13.1 mile course, but this year I was slightly more nervous than usual as I’d been asked to run as a pacer at the frankly alarming-sounding time of 1hr 30 minutes.
Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve paced a race. In fact, Paul, who was co-ordinating the pacing team at Colchester, caught me off guard at the finish of another local race, the Tiptree 10, where we’d both paced in October.
I was the 1hr 10minute pacer there and had felt pretty good as I paced people around the hilly course, so when he asked if I’d pace at Colchester I figured it was just a little faster and a little further and in my post-race state of euphoria I quickly said ‘yes’.
However, I soon found myself injured again and unable to run. It was probably around that time that I also realised I hadn’t actually raced a half marathon on the road for a very long time and all of a sudden 1hr 30 seemed like a big ask, especially as you don’t want to let people down.
Pacing is all about helping other people to achieve their goals. I’ve paced at big races like the Royal Parks Half Marathon, where I paced 1hr 50 minutes back in 2013, and I’ve paced at shorter distances like 10km and parkruns.
Whatever the distance, the best thing about pacing is seeing the smiles on people’s faces at the end. Actually, that’s a lie. There’s usually a look of exhaustion on their faces, which is quickly replaced by a smile. Take a look at the unbridled joy on the face of my brother just after I’d paced him to a PB at Hatfield Broad Oak 10k.
A few weeks before Colchester, I got the chance to see how realistic pacing 1:30 was as Mr Trihard and I had both entered the Brighton Half Marathon (A note from Mr Trihard: er yes, I'll be writing that race report very, very soon...).
As far as I was concerned, anything under 1:30 would have been OK, but half way in I found myself on for PB, helped by a flat course and the overwhelming desire not to be beaten by a speedy fancy dress runner in a cow costume (A note from Mr Trihard:That would have been udderly ridiculous. I than you).
I couldn’t quite cling onto the pace for the last 3 miles or so, which were all run into a pretty hefty head-wind, but I was very happy to cross the finish line in 1:24:54, which is only the second time I’ve broken 1:25. After that, I was a lot less worried about pacing at Colchester.
Race day itself went OK. There were pace runners every 5 minutes from 1:25 to 2:30. I was running with another pacer, Ryan, who is a very good runner from my club. To be honest, that also took some of the pressure off, as I knew a 1:30 was well within him, even if it wasn’t well within me!
The plan was to run as consistently as we could, which is actually pretty tricky given the fact the course takes in two nasty hills in the first few miles, but our splits were fairly consistent. I clocked the fastest mile at 6:43, which included the largest downhill section of the course, and the slowest at 6:56.
By the half way point we found ourselves with a group of runners who had all been with us for a while and who were all heading for a sub 1:30 half. We’d actually been asked to cross the finish line about 30 seconds earlier if we could manage it, the idea being that people who found themselves slightly behind us would still achieve their target time and this seemed to work really well.
The hardest thing in the last three miles was sticking to a steady pace, as instinct started to creep in and you found yourself speeding up as others around you started to kick for the finish.
However, between us we managed to keep each other on pace and, as we turned into the stadium, everyone else in our group had moved ahead of us, which left us with a bit of room for some show boating for the crowds as we crossed the finish line in 1:29:32. Job done.
If you want to read SRG's first blog you can find it here and if you want to know how he got his SRG moniker, take a look here.
The race is organised by Colchester Colne Round Table and every year they manage to make it a little better. It’s a great course, starting and finishing at the local football stadium (no not the impregnable fortress that was Layer Road, but the new Weston Homes Community Stadium on the outskirts of town).
Whilst this has the disadvantage of not being made of wood and corrugated iron, like its illustrious predecessor, it does boast everything you need for staging a great start and finish to a race, including ample toilet facilities.
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| Check out my six pack |
So at 9am on Sunday morning I was lining up with 4,000 other runners ready to take on the 13.1 mile course, but this year I was slightly more nervous than usual as I’d been asked to run as a pacer at the frankly alarming-sounding time of 1hr 30 minutes.
Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve paced a race. In fact, Paul, who was co-ordinating the pacing team at Colchester, caught me off guard at the finish of another local race, the Tiptree 10, where we’d both paced in October.
I was the 1hr 10minute pacer there and had felt pretty good as I paced people around the hilly course, so when he asked if I’d pace at Colchester I figured it was just a little faster and a little further and in my post-race state of euphoria I quickly said ‘yes’.
 |
| This car kept up with me for the whole race |
However, I soon found myself injured again and unable to run. It was probably around that time that I also realised I hadn’t actually raced a half marathon on the road for a very long time and all of a sudden 1hr 30 seemed like a big ask, especially as you don’t want to let people down.
Pacing is all about helping other people to achieve their goals. I’ve paced at big races like the Royal Parks Half Marathon, where I paced 1hr 50 minutes back in 2013, and I’ve paced at shorter distances like 10km and parkruns.
Whatever the distance, the best thing about pacing is seeing the smiles on people’s faces at the end. Actually, that’s a lie. There’s usually a look of exhaustion on their faces, which is quickly replaced by a smile. Take a look at the unbridled joy on the face of my brother just after I’d paced him to a PB at Hatfield Broad Oak 10k.
 |
| This is what a PB looks like |
A few weeks before Colchester, I got the chance to see how realistic pacing 1:30 was as Mr Trihard and I had both entered the Brighton Half Marathon (A note from Mr Trihard: er yes, I'll be writing that race report very, very soon...).
As far as I was concerned, anything under 1:30 would have been OK, but half way in I found myself on for PB, helped by a flat course and the overwhelming desire not to be beaten by a speedy fancy dress runner in a cow costume (A note from Mr Trihard:That would have been udderly ridiculous. I than you).
I couldn’t quite cling onto the pace for the last 3 miles or so, which were all run into a pretty hefty head-wind, but I was very happy to cross the finish line in 1:24:54, which is only the second time I’ve broken 1:25. After that, I was a lot less worried about pacing at Colchester.
Race day itself went OK. There were pace runners every 5 minutes from 1:25 to 2:30. I was running with another pacer, Ryan, who is a very good runner from my club. To be honest, that also took some of the pressure off, as I knew a 1:30 was well within him, even if it wasn’t well within me!
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| The Colchester Half pacing team |
The plan was to run as consistently as we could, which is actually pretty tricky given the fact the course takes in two nasty hills in the first few miles, but our splits were fairly consistent. I clocked the fastest mile at 6:43, which included the largest downhill section of the course, and the slowest at 6:56.
By the half way point we found ourselves with a group of runners who had all been with us for a while and who were all heading for a sub 1:30 half. We’d actually been asked to cross the finish line about 30 seconds earlier if we could manage it, the idea being that people who found themselves slightly behind us would still achieve their target time and this seemed to work really well.
The hardest thing in the last three miles was sticking to a steady pace, as instinct started to creep in and you found yourself speeding up as others around you started to kick for the finish.
However, between us we managed to keep each other on pace and, as we turned into the stadium, everyone else in our group had moved ahead of us, which left us with a bit of room for some show boating for the crowds as we crossed the finish line in 1:29:32. Job done.
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| Your pace or mine? |
If you want to read SRG's first blog you can find it here and if you want to know how he got his SRG moniker, take a look here.
Lovely to hear your story. I was really intrigued by the pacers and found the 1.40 pacers really helpful. Couldn't imagine what it's like to be a pacer, I can now. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt's really helpful reading from an experienced runner what it's like and all about, pacers sounding like they are very organised and will help runners get there, this will be my first ever half marathon this year and saying I am nervous is an understatement! Praying I'll make the finish, great review 👍
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