Gloucester 20

I was supposed to be running the Ashby 20 on this date but after they decided to cancel due to the Coronavirus I took a quick decision to enter this race so I that I would still be able to get in a 20 miler before Manchester.

Unfortunately a few hours later Manchester also decided to cancel the marathon.

This then became the focus race of all of my training. I had not had time to taper like I would have done if it had been my main focus but I was still going to give it a really good go.

On the way to the race I was planning on running about 4:05 to 4:10 per kilometre but when we got there I got talking to a friend who was planning to run at 4:00 so thought I would try to keep up with that pace. This would prove to be a good idea.

It was good that a few of our running group had managed to get entries into the race so that they could also make use of the training that they have done over the winter. As it looks like a lot of things are going to be cancelled over the next few months it may be the last chance we get to race.

The weather for the race was not good. Other than maybe 1 or 2 minutes it rained for the whole time that we were out there. I have often said that I am a better runner when it is raining and a number of my PBs have been set when it is wet. This may be down to me wanting to get back somewhere dry as soon as I can.

The atmosphere around the race did not seem that different to normal, people were carrying on as I would expect people to at the start of a race. Also during the race I did not notice a lot of difference to a normal race day.

The race is made up of 3 loops with an out and back section in the middle of each one. It starts and finishes in an industrial park type area but soon moves out into some nice countryside. Unfortunately the views were not as good as they could have been due to the bad weather.

With a downhill start I went off quickly as I tend to do but soon managed to settle into a rhythm around the 4 minute kilometre mark. After around 4 miles the guy that I was running with decided he was going to drop out. This left me with 16 miles left to do on my own.

I tried to latch onto someone else but they then also slowed down and as I didn’t want to get into someone else’s pattern I continued on ahead of them.

The marshall’s on the course were very encouraging and helped to keep me going. It also helped that it was laps so you come past the main race village a couple of times where more supporters were about.

After the first 2 laps I did some quick calculations are worked out that allowing for a bit of slowing down I could get under 2:10:00. As it happened I did not slow down much at all and managed to feel really strong and completed the full distance in 2:07:57.

Whilst I am really happy with the time it makes me think about what would have been possible at Manchester. With this sort of pace or just slightly slower I believe that my 3 hour target was very achievable. I could maybe have even managed somewhere around the 2:55 mark on a good day.

Hopefully the issues that the world is facing will pass by quickly and I will be able to test myself against the marathon again in Berlin at the end of September.

This training block has shown me that I am able to set a realistic target and do the work needed to put myself in a position to achieve it.

I am trying to remain as positive as I can, I hope others are managing to do the same.