The First First of the Season

I ran the Forfar half marathon last weekend.
I've got no idea why I entered it. Forfar isn't a nice place to go. 13 miles was too short this soon before the D33, so it didn't even fit as a training run. And I hate half marathons.

As the race wasn't far enough for me, I rounded up some troops on the day before and did a steady 15 miles around Fetteresso forest. We got caught in a blizzard, but it was a good run, a good LSR and I had a great chat with some new friends on the way around.

So, at 0700 on the Sunday my alarm went off and I got up. I only get up this early for work if I really have to. But on a Sunday, I got up, put on my running gear and started preparing for the drive down to my first race of the season.

I jumped in the car and, having collected a mate's girlfriend who was running too, hit the A90 southbound. The road was icy and all the way I was thinking "why the hell am I doing this? I need to run about 20 miles today not 13. The roads are pretty bad, we could just go home".
Anyway, we got to Forfar, got our race numbers... and then the red racing mist descended.

I had thought about just running around at a nice steady pace. But as I made my way to the start line, I found I'd positioned myself pretty close to the front.
And during the countdown to the start, I thought: screw it, let's see how fast I can do this.

Due to ice and high water, the course was shortened to around 12.7 miles (as opposed to 13.1 for an actual half). But I came home in 1h32m, and 36th out of 190.
That's a new PB for a half. I'm ignoring the fact that it wasn't quite a half... I'm taking the PB!
Taking into account the differing terrain underfoot, which included tarmac, mud, snow and ice, I'm pretty pleased with that. Especially so early in the season, and with 15 miles already in my legs from the day before.

So, what did I learn from this?

• I can go faster (I still have fantasies of a sub 40m 10km, sub 1h30m half and a sub 3h00 mara)
• I like racing... it brings out my (very) competitive side
• The best way to prep for a half marathon is to run more that a half marathon the day before (*may not be true*)
• And I have delusions of being something more than a mediocre runner

The last one's the tricky one, as I'm very much a mediocre runner and I'd rather I wasn't.

Oh well, back to the training plan, and looking forward to the next time I get to pin a race number to the front of my shirt...