Stafford Half Marathon

What a race! It was a lovely day  and I was on a high after completing Liverpool Half successfully the week before .  I was really looking forward to the run, I remembered it was last year and was looking forward to  running the route again, there is something about running around your old neighbourhood.  There were a number of Potters Trotters taking part in the race and for a couple of them it was the 1st half marathon;

 Liz Tideswell was running for cancer research and looking to achieve either a sub 2:15 or 2:00 time and she managed to smash her estimations and cam in at 1:58, check out her race report on her blog http://rosedawndesigns.blogspot.co.uk/ 

and

Sara Goodwin, Sara was hoping to get around in around 3 hours but for Sara it was mainly to achieve her goal of achieving a half marathon before she was 40, Sara finished in a chip time of 2:51, managing to smash both her goals in one go! 

Well done girls 

The other person who was running this distance for the 1st time was the husband of a colleague from work, Andrew Williams, he was running to raise money for MS and I had agreed to pace him for the 1st couple of miles, he was worried that he may start off a little too quick and wreak his race.  We started in the 1:50 pen and before we knew it we were off and running a very comfortable 8:30minute mile pace, however I had forgotten how flat it was and before I knew it I was running at 8:00 minute miles ! not good as I was meant to be pacing Andrew, but he was taking it all in his stride. 

Mum and Dad came out and see me again around Knowle Road mark and had some much needed Lucozade drink and jelly babies as I slowed down to see them, Andrew carried on at a comfortable place, after waving like mad at them and picking up my supplies I carried on.   My race carried on at a comfortable pace,  each time I over took a runner with a “W” on their back I sped up a little more, Tixall Lanes seemed to be a little tougher than I remembered and just as I was getting a little weary of them they finished and I was heading back in to Baswich, over half way done..

I was feeling great, the sun  on my back, great music  in my ears and the finish was closer than the start . 

Just as I passed the 12 mile maker I noticed another “W” runner in front, she was wearing a blue Cheadle running singlet;1st place must be between me and her, that was here that I managed to find a little more energy, I caught up with her and over took her coming through Doxy and in the park is where she took back the lead, but I stuck to her heals and followed her step for step.  Just as we came out of the park and back into Stafford Town centre I retook the lead and was feeling strong, I was getting tired but I knew the finish was close and she was hot my heals.  As we round the corner by Costa the finish was in sight she came passed me again, the world closed in and there was just 2 people in this race and I wanted to win and at the same time we both broke out into a sprint for the finish line and I would say that it was a photo finish. She have me a hug and we said thanks, both wondering what the league result was going to say!

I do have to say a big thank you to my nemesis, or Rachel Beardmore as I have since found out, I managed to achieve a personal best and  knocked off a good 2 minutes, I don’t think I would have managed it if we hadn’t have been battling to the finish!!! As for who won the points we are still waiting for the league results to be published, our gun time was the the same at 1:53:22 however my chip time was 1:51:15 which was quicker,  perhaps this is what the holding up the results .