This last Sunday (29th march 2009) was the Reading (pronounced Reding for any American readers) half marathon (http://www.readinghalfmarathon.com). This is a big race (almost 12000 entries). This year was the third year in a row I have run and the forth time overall as Reading was the very first half marathon I ever ran back in 2003. I was very slow in that run. I was not doing as much training at the time and had never done the distance before. I was running with my friend Ian who was training for that year’s London Marathon and was in great shape. We set off together and at first I was OK but I should have started slower and conserved some energy (this is where experience of the distance counts) and about half way round I started to drop back and eventually had to ease off. I even ended up walking part of the way after hitting the wall. I was quite gutted at the time but still pleased to finish and have my first ever half marathon medal. I still have it at home, it has a Lion on (as this is a Reading symbol for some reason) and I still maintain is one of the best medals I have ever got at a race.
These last few years have been better. I’ve always run this race with at least one or two friends, Ian in 2003, Chris and Gregor in 2007, Chris, Gregor, Jules and Claire in 2008 and Chris and Helen this time round in 2009. We had a very early star this year though. Chris had kindly offered to drive and had booked a car park spot. The trouble was that there is usually so much traffic on the way to this event that this year they decided they wanted people parked up by 8.30am. This obviously meant leaving Cambridge quite early. We agreed to leave at 6am which given the clocks went forward the night before felt like 5am. In the end Chris (understandably) had a bit of trouble getting up and we left around 6.30am but I had still been up since 5:45. I had a bit of kip in the car on the way there as it was warm and comfy and I was tired. I did my best to stay awake but I just couldn’t quite manage it. Luckily Chris was kind enough not to mind too much, though I did feel guilty.
In the end we got to the Reading fairly early and parked up with no real problems (which was good). I had brought breakfast with me (some bread, raisins and porridge oats made up with cold soya milk a banana and an apple) as I figured it would be better to eat it closer to the actual start time than when I got up (it also meant I could stay in bed a bit longer). After that we headed over the race HQ, looked in the Sweatshop tent (not very good really) and met up with Helen and James, we chatted for a bit and then we dropped our kit off and headed for the start.
Being so close to the London marathon and a very well organised race Reading gets quite crowded. This is not usually a problem for me, though I gather people right at the back don’t like it. The only issue I had was that right at the start when the commentator was trying to get people to line up, he actually told people to push there way through. This was in my mind a very silly thing to say when you have 12000 people on one stretch of road!
Once the race got underway it was all OK. I did not feel this was my best race though My legs felt heavy and tired and I wondered if I may have over-trained for it (over 21 hours of exercise since the previous Saturday). Still I got a chip time of 1:32:32 which is quite good and a new PB for Reading. I did the race in 1:41.42 in 2008 and 1:44.20 in 2007 (the less said about 2003's race - my first time at that distance and woefully ill prepared - the better). As regular readers will know my very best time for half marathon distance is 1:30.4 set in the Milton Keynes half marathon a few weeks ago. That race was a lot flatter and less crowded than Reading. I still have the magic 1:30 barrier to break but I am already signed up to a few more races so you never know.
They gave us a neat goody bag and a nice medal at the end. Unfortunately, as a Vegan I could not eat any of the generous amount of goodies in my goody bag (a banana or other fruit would have been good but not essential). Luckily my friend Helen got a slightly different set of items in hers and kindly gave me one of them which I could eat.
After the race we all headed to a pub with a Helen’s housemate and her friend and had a nice lunch. I had a bit of trouble getting vegan food (and got a few odd looks in the process) but eventually settled on a baked potato with beans and salad and a very generous side order of chips which did the job. It was a bit scary at the bar, several middle age women wanted to admire (and feel) my medal and there was on chap who insisted his daughter was vegetarian even though she apparently ate fish and chicken! I think I ate too many chips (and also had a home made vegan pizza for tea) but I figure pigging out after the race is almost as much fun as the event itself so I don't mind too much. If it is good enough for Chrissie Wellington (http://www.chrissiewellington.org) then it's good enough for me. You can see pictures of the event by going to http://www5.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event_entry.py?job=Sports%2FCPUK%2F2009%2FReading%20Half%20Marathon and searching by my running number which was 843 (there are also group shots from 2007 and 2009 below).
I feel asleep again on the way home but it was all good.
I'll be back for this race next year if I can.
2009 (Oli, Chris and Helen)
2007 (Gregor, Oli Chris)
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