Well I haven't posted for a few weeks, Warrington New Balance English Half Marathon didn't go well. I'm generally not very good at spending the night before a race in a hotel room, I'm usually a pretty good sleeper but seem to struggle with the combination of adrenaline before the race and unfamiliar surroundings. I slept badly before the Great North Run but this was much worse and I think I only got 2 or 3 hours. The race was early 9am and so I was up at 5.30 for a jog and breakfast.
We were greeted by a wet autumn morning but perfect conditions for running a half marathon. After a delayed start we got going and quickly sorted ourselves out into a small group of leading athletes. There were five of us in the group and we went through the opening mile in 5.03 and I didn't feel great. I knew the opening miles were supposed to be uphill but it was tougher than I had imagined. At 3 miles (15.19) I felt as though I was working really hard and in danger of getting dropped. Comapred with the GNR where I went through 5k in 15.04 I was feeling much worse. I knew that with a large gap behind me getting dropped was not an option and I had to hang on for as long as possible. It was pretty miserable stuff and I was dropped and got back on about 4 times before losing contact at 8 miles. The guys in the group starting racing each other as we turned to drop back down the hill and I lost ground, there was a point at about 9.5 where I felt I was making ground but I struggled badly in the last 2 miles, finishing in 66.36. I was pretty disappointed with the run, and reckon I was about a minute down on a normal day but on a positive note, if I'm running 66.36 on a bad day there is more in the tank.
Again I wore the New Balance RC769 and experienced no problems at all, I find them a little heavy but my legs seem to recover well after racing in them. I'm going to get a pair of RC205 from the US soon.
I've been reading a bit about Adidas the last couple of days and a new heritage range of running/racing shoes which will be coming out in the New Year, including the Marathon 10 based on the old Marathon trainer and the MMX Marathon based on the old Marathon 80 worn by the likes of Grete Waitz back in the early 80's, they are going to use modern materials but the styling will be similar to the originals. I've been wearing a pair of Adizero Adios for a while, really good shoes which are very light but still pretty bouncey with a nice narrow fit, they are also a bit of a nod back to the old Adistar comp racer from '84 worn by the likes of De Castella and co. a slightly later version of this shoe, I think it was 86 had a Delinger web midsole and a suede outersole!
