Inverness Half Marathon 11/03/07
Six of us made it to Inverness - Louise deserves special credit for showing up to support in spite of knee problems meaning she couldn't run. The weather forecast had been for snow and gales on the Saturday supported by heavy rain on the Sunday - enough to put off almost 500 of the entrants - but we were truly blessed with the weather - grey, occasional drizzle, and windy enough to cool you down without blowing you backwards. I then drove back through 3 hours of heavy rain - so we were very lucky.
the leading runnersThe course is "mainly" flat - the most significant climb being in mile 4, with a long steep descent during mile 9: otherwise half is "out and back" along both sides of the River Ness, with the middle through mixed woods and suburbs. Last 300m is on the running track - which seemed to be made of india rubber following the miles of tarmac. Four water stations were more than enough, and the marshalling/directing was all of a good standard. Sole criticisms were that the start was a little disorganised in that the very loud gun went off with no warning to the part of the pack where I was, and the first mile had gone by before we got sorted out into a more sensible order.
The Portobello runners all went well: "Bert" first home in a 1:27:15 (5th in his class), followed by Jim Scott 1:27:59, me in 1:34:06, Ben Carter in 1:36:11 and Sheena Sutherland in 1:39:31 (23rd in her class) - all chip times. All seemed very happy - Bert over 12 minutes inside his last half marathon, Sheena taking 5 minutes off her PB. And for me this was welcome reassurance that the marathon training is having some impact beyond leaving me constantly tired, hungry and increasingly grumpy: with five weeks to go and 100 miles in the next fortnight, beating the target 1:37 time was very much needed. Some discussion on the merits of using Garmins during races afterwards - Bert steadfastly avoiding looking at the watch the whole way, me running to keep every mile under 7:30, but not looking at the total till the finish clock in sight, Sheena deliberately slowing down as the early miles were too fast etc.
Two other items worthy of note. First, yet another PB for ex-Porty Julia Henderson - 1:24:49, fourth female overall and third in her class. Second, Stornoway Running Club sent a large and very speedy contingent over as they prepare to try and retake the Heb3 Team Title from us in the coming months - Stornoway will be my next half at the end of May.
Ben Carter sprints to the line (chip time 1.36.11)Still, for the meantime, it's a little worrying how chuffed you can get about coming 213th!
Report Richard Dennis
Photos Andrew Henderson
Full results here
A short note to add to Richard's who ran a blinder on Sunday. At the start Richard told me he was going for 1:37 which I needed to beat for a PB. Richard spent the entire race just ahead of me (with a widening gap from around 8 miles). Had it not been for the sight of the back of Richard's vest for so long I think I would have probably missed shaving a mammoth 68 seconds off my PB. At this rate I'm hoping to go sub 1:30 by the age of 89.
To add to the Half Marathon there was also an excellent 5K fun run organised to keep families entertained while mum or dad ran the half. My wife Anna and daughters Abby and Rosie (plus Granny and Auntie) all took part in this. Abby who is 9 stormed home in 37 minutes with her wee sister just 3 minutes behind. I made sure to introduce them to Bert at the end, as they might offer better raw material for our coaches than their ageing dad.
Drove home with 4 medals in the car (with mum and dad far too cool to wear theirs when we stopped for chips in Pitlochry) and had post PB champagne when we got home. Got a call from the Brown Bear (Tom W) last night to tell me that I should be looking to do better than 1:36 - thanks for the motivational pep talk Tom. Mental note to self to try harder!Report Ben Carter
