Essex 20 - Race Report

 It has now been a week since my race at the Essex 20.  It was a tough morning's work, and I think it has caught up with me now.  I booked this race before realising it was on Mother's Day, and it will likely fall on that weekend in the future, so I may have to swerve it for the foreseeable. It's a pity becauase it's timing as preparation for a spring marathon is pretty perfect.  

The course itself definitely has a high boredeom factor, five laps of a four-mile circuit around an airfield, but that familiarity and rhythm is useful for pacing yourself and also means you are never far away from the loos, or your car for a resupply.  Thankfully I didn't require either, but it was a comfort to know it was there if needed.

The race was a half nine start and was a decent drive from home, I wished Lauren a happy Mother's Day and left the house about half seven getting to the airfield and parked with plenty of time to spare.  I got to meet up with Charlotte who was also running, in preparation for Edinburgh Marathon which comes a month after London.  We had a nice chat before the start, I then went for a short warm-up whilst she went to see her clubmates.

The race got underway on time with the 500 or so runners heading out on their opening lap.  It is a strong field, the race doubles up as the county championships and is very club runner heavy.  With the looped course you were never far from company but also had plenty of space to run which I like.  

Given it is on an airfield you might expect a good surface but there were plenty of potholes to avoid and so there were big stretches of eyes on the floor and being wary where you placed your feet.  The conditions were good, the temperature was near perfect and it was dry, the one condition working against us was the wind.  Strava tells me it was 12mph, but it felt stronger than that and definitely picked up in the second half of the race.  The early section of the lap was sheltered by trees but there was a long straight once you come out of that and it felt like a block headwind to me.  It was there early on the fourth lap that I had my first walk break.

I ran this race in 2023 totally untrained when I completed it in 4:06 with 2:15 of it spent walking but walking was definitely not on my 2026 race plan given the good six-month block of training I have been able to put together.  In the end I was able to keep the walking contained to 13 minutes.  Here are my five-mile splits:

• 41:14 (Total 41:14) 8:15 min/miles (5:08min/km)
• 42:07 (Total 1:23:21) 8:25 min/miles (5:14min/km)
• 43:55 (Total 2:07:17) 8:47 min/miles (5:27min/km)
• 49:11 (Total 2:56:28) 9:50 min/miles (6:07min/km)
• 1:31 (Total 2:57:59) 7:15 min/miles (4:30min/km)

As you can see my pace faded section by section before a 90 second sprint for the finish line.  

The section 1 to 2 fade is ok, it will largely be explained by a couple of excitable opening miles.  The section 2 to 3 fade is contained in miles 14 and 15 where I walked.  That fourth section is the run when you can, walk if you can't section.  What a slog that was.   Then a satisfying run to the finish over the final 400 metres or so.

I was relieved to complete the race and there were definitely moments that I could happily have pulled the plug, but the one area I consistently miss are the long runs and so it was good to get a 20 miler in the bank, even if portions of it were walked.  It also allowed me to test out my nutrition, I had four gels through the race, and for some reason opted for no liquids of any kind which might have been an error.  

It is a tough pill to swallow but my time target for London will need to be revised downwards off the back of this.  From the 3:30-3:34 I had hoped to run and earning a PB in the process to something more like 3:50-4:00.  Given the six months training I have managed to put together that is frustrating, but I need to keep my eye on the summer of 2028 timeline and use this six months as the strong building block that it is.

I have run lower mileage this week and all of it has been easy.  Despite that my body is still bust up.  Tightness in my lower back and left calf, something isn't quite right in my right quad.  Ontop of which I woke up Sunday morning with a sore throat that is worsening.  I just want to try and stay calm about it, I hope to be running strong again by the end of this week.  I can then have a good two weeks of hard training before the long overdue taper down prior to the race.  The Essex 20 was a reality check, but I'm still in good shape.  I ran a 1:42 half marathon just three weeks ago and as long as my body doesn't break, London should be a very special race.  Onwards and upwards.

If Carlsberg Did Weekends - Middlesbrough Half Marathon Race Report

 From the glamour of Dubai it was a bump back down to earth at the Middlesbrough half marathon this weekend.  Or so you might think.  I had a brilliant time in the north-east, heading up on Friday night to stay with my mother-in law for the weekend.  Jan (mother-in-law) and River (the dog) were waiting up for me when I arrived at just after 9pm.  I had a catch-up with Jan, and cuddles (with River) before heading to bed.  

Eight hours of uninteruppted, childfree sleep later I woke up refreshed Saturday morning.  I opted to skip the parkrun, and go out for a gentle 7km run, leaving the intensity for Sunday's race.  Jan and I then went to Jean and Rick's for tea, cake and chat.  We spent a very pleasant hour there before heading home for lunch and one of the famous pies from Petch's.  It was then into the car to the beach at Skinningrove for a walk.  River made himself some new friends and we enjoyed the sea air and some sun.  We got very lucky with the weather, as soon as we got home it began to rain.

The day finished with a trip to the Royal Oak in the village for dinner with Jan, Daniel (Brother-in-law), Tori (Sister-in-law) and Roman (nephew) he was at his super smilie best.  Against all dietary advice I opted for a full Hot Shot Parmo.  Jalapneos, Chilli flakes and pepperoni all washed down with a Birra Moretti.  The pre-race dinner of champions.

A solid seven hours of rest and recovery Saturday night, I got ready for the race in peace.  Driving myself to Dan's who had kindly offered to drop me off near the start.  That all worked really smoothly and I was at the start village by 08:15 ready for the 09:00 race.  It was a little fresh when waiting to start, my garmin would later tell me it was 7 degrees but with the wind chill it felt like 0.  Once you got moving though it was perfect, very different from the 19 degrees and high humdity of Dubai a couple of weeks earlier.  Short loo queue, room to warm-up comfortably, 3,500 runners so not too busy, estimated finish time seedings that worked.  Great North Run? No thanks, give me the Middlesbrough Half Marathon everday.

Running, like almost everything in life is all about the gap between your expectation of something and the result.  For this race my confidence was starting to falter, I had been tired on runs, struggling to hit target times on effort sessions, all that hard work, was my fitness fading?  I was a bit lost on a time to target, sub 1:50, 1:45 as the stretch target.  1:50 is 5:12 km's and so I had that in mind when I positioned myself just in front of the 1:50 sign ready for the off.

The course was busy and you had to be wary of those around you, but it was definitely more spacious than Dubai.  I like to try and find myself some room, I was thinking about it during the race, ideally I am aiming for something the size of an Atlasphere from Gladiators.  In this race that was achievable for much of it, but I will have to adjust my target at the London Marathon next month, maybe the size of a hamster ball could be achievable.

I felt strong from the off, moving through the field, cautious not to trip over others, or be tripped.  Here are the splits from the first 5km:

• 1km - 4:58
• 2km - 5:04
• 3km - 4:53
• 4km - 4:58
• 5km - 4:51

Total 24:44

That 5:12 pace looked overly cautious.  I was running comfortably, my heart-rate was steady, creeping up to 162 BPM by kilometre 5 but it was in the zone.  The course was very flat, there were some minor inclines early on but nothing substantial.  1:45 is 5 minute km's and that started to come into my mind, I was feeling good.

The second 5km looked like this:

• 6km - 4:49
• 7km - 4:46
• 8km - 4:45
• 9km - 4:48
• 10km - 4:44

Total 23:52

Life was good in this section, 1:50 was now way in the rear-view mirror.  There was always the possibility I could explode, but the heartrate was holding steady in the early 160 BPM.  I was keen to get to 11km and then we could start counting down the second-half.  The crowds were good, there were definitely quiet spots on the route, particularly in the port section later on in the race, but I am happy just working away.  I did spot a great one two punch of a sign that two women had, "Go Hard" followed by her friends sign "That's what she said." With a picture of Steve Carell from the American Office.  That is my level.

The third section splits were:

• 11km - 4:40
• 12km - 4:41
• 13km - 4:43
• 14km - 4:47
• 15km - 4:51

Total 23:42

This was my I got over excitable section.  I was feeling strong and wanted to really push things on.  I attacked a short climb over a bridge a little too hard and my HR hit 170 plus, by the end of km 15 my HR was now averaging 168.  I felt sub 1:45 was well on, but there wasn't anything else to particuarly target time wise, just get it done as fast as you can and don't blow up.

The fourth section

• 16km - 4:56
• 17km - 4:50
• 18km - 4:51
• 19km - 4:54
• 20km - 4:56

Total 24:27

It was holding it together at this stage.  I had been comfortable throughout almost all of the first three quarters but this final section stung.  The drummers were a nice little pick me up and we got two bites at them with the looped nature of the route.  My pace drops by about 10 seconds a km in this section but I felt as long as I was in and around 5 minutes a km I could bring it home in a time I would be pleased with.

The finish:

• 21km - 4:42
• 400m - 1:44

Throughout the race the race signs were coming earlier than my Garmin splits, so my biggest concern was the course was going to be short, in the event the end was really long.  My Garmin was telling me I was done with the finish line still some 200 metres in the distance.  I was shattered and about ready to pull over and call it a day.  I pushed and pushed for the line, willing it to me.  Finally getting over the line in 1:43:12 I have it measuring at 13.30 miles with me crossing the half marathon at 1:41:42 but we will go with the official time of 1:43:09.

I got my medal, a bottle of water, some Haribos, ginger biscuits and some Volatrol.  A very useful little stash.  I got myself to Mcdonald's and the agreed pick up with Jan at 11am, I skipped Mcdonald's opting instead for brunch back at Jan's.  Full of bacon, sausage, french toast, beans and tea I drove the four hours home to Essex with a huge grin on my face.

Since running 1:41:55 at the Southend Half Marathon in June 2015 I had done 10 half marathon's with times varying from 1:47 to 2:44, so this weekend's 1:43 is my fastest half marathon in 11 years, and was also a minute a mile faster than my 1:57 ran at Basildon in September last year.  We keep this momentum up through to the autumn and Basildon 2026 and I will look to go sub 1:40 or better there.  For now I will enjoy the after glow from the Middlesbrough half marathon weekend.