Wimbledon common half marathon organized by RunThrough.co.uk was definitely the nicest half marathon I’ve done so far. I finished a couple of road half marathons before, but I never really trained for them, so all my previous times were well over 2 hours. Then I decided that half marathons are not for me. I thought that 21K distance is just too much and I was always struggling to find a motivation to run after 15th km. Later I discovered that it’s not really a distance, but rather the environment I was struggling with. I love nature, hiking, singing of birds… When surrounded by these elements, my legs can carry me much longer. So I fell in love with long-distance walks and later ultra-trail runs. I never came back to half-marathons since then. Until now.

Even though I prefer trail running, it’s not always possible for me to train only on trails. Especially in the winter, when the days are short. As most of my trainings take place on a very flat course (in London), I tried to focus more on the speed and the distance recently. Which, naturally, stimulated my curiosity, how fast could I do 10K or half marathon race now.

The opportunity to find out arose quite unexpectedly this week. I joined Fulham running club recently, as I was looking for more motivation to keep on with my running trainings. In their facebook group, someone offered 2 free starts on Wimbledon common half marathon. I checked out the course and I knew at once, that this is THE half marathon I want to do. I was lucky enough to be the second one who claimed it 🙂

The weather didn’t look very nice in the morning. It was cold, foggy, a little windy. I changed my mind just a couple of minutes before the start to change my t-shirt for a long sleeved thermal. It was definitely not warm enough for me to wear just my new Fulham vest, so I put in on top.

The race was starting in 3 waves, depending on the target time. I wanted to go in just under 2 hours, which meant starting in the last, slowest one. The race was chip-times, so I didn’t mind. Only later I found out, that probably not everyone was so honest with their targets. I don’t really understand, what advantage does it give to start earlier and then being in the way of faster runners. Anyway, there were not so many people, so they didn’t slow me down so much.

For the first couple of meters, my hands were freezing and I was swearing for not bringing any gloves. However, the hilly start of the race helped me to warm up really quickly. After 1.5 miles, on the top of the hill, I didn’t feel the cold any more. From there on, the course continued flat for a couple of miles, then a bit downhill, flat again and the second loop the same, starting with the hill. All the time it led through the forest paths, very well marked and the marshalled on every turn.

Even though my fiance Peter didn’t participate in this race, he was supporting me and cheering at a couple of waypoints. Before the race, he advised me to keep 5:30/km pace and if it didn’t go well, I could slow down in the second half of the race and still manage to finish in under 2 hours. As I started quite slowly up the hill, I speeded up on the flat part to catch up on the gap I gained. I felt so good that I didn’t realize how quickly I run. I was quite surprised to find out, that I managed to keep an average pace at about 5:15/km for the first loop. I could see that I can probably do it in under 1:55, not 2:00 as I originally planned. I thought that I would slow down in the second half, which really happened, but just very slightly. I kept my motivation for about 17 or 18 km, then I just told myself the finish is close and I kept going.

The last kilometre was definitelly the hardest one. I could hear cheering from the finish line, but I still had a slight ascent ahead. As I saw Peter running opposite to see me in the finish, I told him I had had enough. He told me to keep going and disappeared. I really slowed down, but couldn’t stop. I was so close. When I saw the finish line, all my strength suddenly returned and I crossed the line with a smile at a chip time of 01:51:07. Much better than I expected!

So I started my season with a new PB. Let’s see how the other 2 events go. My next planned is The Fox, 60km ultra trail, here in the UK at the end of April. Only 2 weeks after that I am doing my top race of the season, Ultra Trail Vipava Valley, 100km in Slovenia. My goal is just to finish both of them 🙂