Leicester Half Marathon

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It’s the Leicester Half Marathon today and my third time of competing in it. The course remains unchanged, on road until almost half way then back through parkland before a final bit through the city centre and the climb up the only real hill on the whole course.

I do love this race which feels like a really small time race even though it’s a 'big city' one. It could really do with a big sponsor\organiser to come in and move it on a bit. There is huge potential here, numbers could easily be doubled I would think, for what is very underrated race.

Throughout the race my pace is almost identical to last year’s, at each split I’m hitting almost the same time. Last year I did 1:40:01, so this year having dragged myself up that final mile uphill it’s a case of leg it as hard as I can once the course flattens out again around mile 13.

I’m not usually one for a sprint finish and this one almost finishes me off. I tumble over the line and collapse in a heap on the tarmac. My watch says 1:39:59 but what does the official timing say?

It isn’t until much later that I get confirmation that I have indeed managed to drag this ageing body over the line in under 100 minutes. Albeit by just one second. If the drinks at the feed stations hadn’t been in cups I’d probably have broken it more easily.

The multitude of data I then gets tells me of an average speed of 7.86 mph, pace 7:37 min/mile,

VO2 max estimated at 45.1 (ml/kg/min) and really bizarrely a chip time as 21-29 year-old of 01:29:11. WTF. How the hell do they work that out?

Are they telling me that if I’d been doing half marathon’s 20 years ago I’d be breaking the holy grail of 1:30? B******s. That's a bizarre statistic that I didn't need to know. 

L says it would've been more handy if they're predicted my race time in 10 years’ time. I’m not convinced, I’d just end up killing myself to prove it was wrong.

Leicester Half Marathon

It’s almost perfect conditions for the Leicester Half, if perhaps a little cold but it’ll warm up I'm sure. We again used the 'secret' entrance to the car park actually on Victoria Park where the race start. Please don't tell anyone, let's keep it a secret.

This race has come on a lot since I last ran it two years ago but it does still feel like it’s being organised as a small local race rather than a big city one that it currently pulling 2,500. At least race packs were posted out this year and we don’t get the timing chip fiasco of 2013. There’s nothing really wrong with the race, it could just be ran a lot slicker and I really wish they would do away with the drinks in cups. This cost me at least a minute as I can’t run and drink, so have to slow to a walk.

That said I liked the course back in 2013 and did a good time. It doesn’t appear to have changed, so I like it just as much this time.

I get a good start as we head out along the Melton Road and out of Leicester. The first half is all on main roads then at 6 miles we hit Watermead Country Park where the race splits and the full marathoners are sent off somewhere. I know not where.

Us halfies do a long stint through Watermead and other assorted Leicester Parks before ending up at the National Space Centre at mile 10 and then onto Abbey Park. Mile 12-13 takes us through the pedestrianised shopping centre before the tough last mile up a persistent incline back to Victoria Park.

I cross the line with an official chip time of 1:40:01, very pleased with that. Over two minutes off my time at Derby two weeks ago and a similar amount off my time here in 2013.

Oddly, according to my watch I was actually behind my Derby pace at all the mile markers bar the last one. I was apparently a minute down at times, even at mile 12 I was still 22 seconds behind. Then suddenly at mile 13 I was 70 seconds up and the last .1 took 60 seconds where at Derby it took an alleged 4:36! The vagaries of mile markers....

The medal and long sleeved technical T-shirt aren't great but they did put crisps in the goody bag for the dogs.

Leicester Half Marathon

Today the Leicester Half Marathon, in the rain. Yes the conditions aren’t great as we arrive at Victoria Park and park right next to the course for free. I think this happens because they haven’t really published any parking instructions, there are some in the race pack but they’re not much use as I have to pick that up after we’ve parked... I think they need to make better use of their website, which is currently poor.

The race pack goes onto mention the list of banned substances: - mp3 players, roller blades, dogs (sorry boys) and walking in the first four miles (good luck enforcing that one!).

A lot of the organisation isn’t great but one thing they do seem to get right, and it’s probably the most important, is the course, which I love. At Nottingham two weeks ago, the organisation was mostly pretty slick but they seemed to go to great lengths to avoid including Nottingham in the route. Leicester however took the route straight through the city by road, showing off the city centre and then after we’d reached the outskirts we returned through parkland. First Watermead Park, then through Abbey Park and along the canal, all of this was on tarmac paths, no gravel. Then finally back in the city, the last two miles were spent in the pedestrianised centre. An excellent combination of city centre and parkland. Nottingham take note.

The crowds could have been bigger but considering the rain the turnout wasn’t bad. The weather had been so bad that three sections of the route were flooded, including one quite unpleasant section in a subway but there wasn’t much they could have done about that. Although the rain did actually stop for most of the time I was out on the course.

There were other minor annoyances too, that all add up. Drinks in cups is a total no-no for a big race like this, particularly for a full marathon. Good job it wasn’t hot. On the plus side having High 5 drink available was a bonus.

I also missed all but one of the first six mile markers as they along with hundreds of other race related signs were the same sized yellow signs. Next year please, a different colour, bigger and on both sides of the road.

Then there was the timing chip fiasco. The timing chip was stuck in a plastic bag on the back of your race number and the first mile was accompanied by the sound of a cascade of these chips crashing against the pavement as loads fell off. I lost mine, so I picked another one up off the road, so at least they couldn't charge me for losing one. So somebody out there will get a surprise time. Maybe a good time or maybe a bad one, depending on what their expectations were. Other people went back, swimming against the tide, trying to retrieve their own which caused a few issues.

They clearly realised quite soon that there was a problem and they reverted to manual timing. This caused a huge bottle neck at the finish as everyone queued in single file for them to record everyone’s number in the order they finished but the organisers at least deserve credit for trying to recover the situation.

The course was generally flat apart from the last mile which was all uphill. My time of 01:42 was three minutes quicker than Nottingham, indicating that I’m slightly less injured now.

Finally, there was no goodie bag and all the medals and t-shirts say marathon on them, so I can't show off either as I only did the half!