As I can walk to this race it always feels like I should have a go at it. There is always the challenge of getting a PB as well. Although I do a lot of my training on the roads, I rarely do races on them. So doing local road races makes a lot of sense, it's also nice to mix up the races.
So, as is now tradition, on the morning of the race I walked there; this time with Phyllis. It was to be her 2nd half marathon race after doing the Great North run. The point to point aspect of which has always appealed to me, but I have never got around to giving it a go. Like the GNR the Lancaster half is a fast course, the only tough part being a reasonable sized hill at the 8 mile point and a gradual climb at 9 miles. So I set off at 6 minute 30 sec miles, with a PB in mind. I had a good run and maintained steady miles at around 6.20 min. The only time I struggled was on the 2 hills at the 8-9 mile point. After that I felt I kept the pace pretty well to the end.
I finished in a PB of 1 hour 22: 42 good enough for 15th out of 658. I was also 2nd V40 by 6 seconds. Phyllis broke her 2 hours target by a minute to set a new PB too.
