Sheffield Half Marathon

The chance of a Half Marathon fast time was never an option at Sheffield with so many sharp turns and hills to contend with. It became a race for position rather than a race against the watch. My first mile went according to plan which was not to set off too fast and then for the next couple of miles I relaxed as I ran along steadily behind a good group of runners, I decided the group was too big and not moving along quickly enough so I attacked especially as a close rival who had beaten me at Bridlington Half Marathon (Pulmani Banganni) seemed to be struggling. The attacked paid off and within in a mile I eased back slightly to let the two chasing runners from behind through (Andrew Ward Clowne AC and Carl Thackery Hallamshire Harriers) to set me a good pace as we battled for 5th, 6th and 7th place, they seemed to do a good job of setting a decent pace as I felt we were catching the third and fourth placed runners ahead up. On reaching seven mile marker I was still latched onto the back of the two runners but the runners ahead were pulling away slowly. Around the nine mile mark it was left with the two of us as the Hallamshire Harrier runner faded and on reaching the ten mile mark I attacked hard in the pursuit of the runner ahead, three hundred metres seemed a large gap but I was feeling fresh and keen, at this point I could also see just ahead of the fourth placed runner was Ian Fisher from Otley AC, on reaching Don Valley Stadium for the finish the gap to the fourth place runner was down to 10 metres at the most, a marker board with 800mtrs to the finish was passed which in turn gave the runner ahead a new lease of life as he opened the gap between us sightly further, on lining up for the last 100 metre sprint along the running track in the stadium I left myself with too much to do and had to settle for fifth in 1 hour 10 minutes and 21 seconds. Nine seconds behind fourth place and twenty five seconds behind Ian Fisher in third so not too bad after all. Andrew Ward in 6th finished 34 seconds behind me, and the winner was race favourite Jason Ward in a time of 1 hour 08 minutes 02 seconds.
Not the best time for me but I was over the moon with the fast attacking last three miles especially as the only flat bits on the course are on the track out of the stadium and then back on the track finishing.
It's definitely not a P.B. breaking course but with all the hills, underpasses and 90 degrees turns it does make for a great race.
I missed out on a Yorkshire Half Marathon Medal, but I did win the Gold Medal/Trophy in the Yorkshire Vets Championships. Oh ! The prize . £100 voucher for up and running but can only be used for Mizuno footwear, it's a good job I use Mizuno Shoes.
But the best bit of the day was buying myself a car on the way home, I called in at Wakefield to have a look at a car that seemed to good of a deal to be true and we bought it. What a day !

Volvo C30 1.8SE