Wilmslow Half 2023

Today marked the 6^th time I’ve toed the line at the Wilmslow Half. I’ve had some great races and tussles in the past, including a 1:21:xx in 2016, but I wasn’t expecting great things today. 

Training has been going well but it’s been largely easy volume, alongside swimming and biking of course, with very few hard runs or interval sessions over winter. 

 

Wilmslow Half results (2010-2023)

I had a great day at the Grizedale Trail 13 in February, smashing out a 1:43:xx for the V50 win, but this was going  be a very different kettle of fish; a hard, flat road surface and way more competitive.

Also, as this race confirmed, my PB days are well and truly behind me. Synthesizing all this, I reckoned a pace of ~4:20-4:30 mins/km was realistic, yielding a sub-1:35. Add in a bit of race fever for good measure, hopefully sub-1:30.

V50 win at the Grizedale Trail 13

Early on, I found myself clipping along a bit faster than target pace, but that’s ok; its net downhill on the way out so while you have to be careful not to go out too fast, you might as well capitalise while you can.

 

Within a few k, Paul Barrett came along side and tried to goad me into following him, but as much as I love our competition, I was having none of it and stuck to my rhythm. 

 

Went through 10k in 42 minutes and felt good. Raised the pace a bit but then remembered that the back half is net uphill and into the wind, so settled back down. Same again with 5k to go; tried to step it up but with no hard miles in the legs, I was feeling a bit tender so settled down again.

 

Approaching the finish, I saw a race clock tick over from 1:28:59 to 1:29:00. Wasn’t sure how far I had left to go but thankfully it was only a few hundred meters, and I bagged a gun time of 1:29:51.

Rocking the Hoka Carbon X2s

So very happy. A long way off my PB but as alluded to above, I have reconciled with myself that while the glory days are over, I can still put in a good shift and enjoy it. Very happy with the pacing, with identical normalised gradient paces for the way out and the way back. Also, not bad off just easy volume although the quads are a bit trashed. Onwards!

 

Meanwhile, Jacky did great in her second half marathon, shaving some time off compared to the Manchester Half last October.

PS: I raced in a pair Hoka Carbon X2s. Picked them up cheap when they got superseded by the X3. They are not really a supershoe like the Nike Alphafly etc, but it’s my first foray into the carbon plate territory, and I quite like them. I have however splashed out on a pair of just-released-to-the-general-public Hoka Rocket X2s. These are supposed to be the bomb, so looking forward to testing them out in the next few weeks.

Hoka Rocket X2s fresh out the box