Joe Cox Half Marathon 2010

St Mary's Church Buxhall

Finally the race that I have been training for really since the beginning of January arrived. On a dry but breezy day I set of for the new race venue headquarters which were in the small village of Buxhall in Suffolk.

The Headquarters were at a firm called John Deere a tractor and lawn mower company. There was plenty of car parking and the directions sent by the Stowmarket Striders who organised the race were good. The decision to switch the race from Gt Finborough last years venue was clearly a good one at least from the participants point of view.

As I got out of the car I was caught out a little by the weather. It was much cooly than yesterday with a chilly breeze blowing across the prominatory position of Buxhall. Walking to the headquarters to pick up my race number the views were quite stunning looking towards St Marys Church and the tower windmill in the village.

Joe Cox Medal

I wished I had brought my gloves and my thoughts were changing regarding what I was going to wear for the race. I had been confident the day before that I could just wear the St Edmund Pacers club singlet and shorts.

After picking up my race number I had nearly an hour to kill. This I did by listening to the latest episode of Marathon Talk podcast. I do think this podcast is one of the best out there at the moment. Good mix of training tips and humour in a magazine style format.

Junior Race at Buxhall

I then took in the start of the juniors funrun . There seemed to be a very good turnout of runners from the St Edmund Pacers.

It was then decision time on what to wear and I wimped out and decided to wear a long sleeved top under my race vest. The start at 11am came and I shot off too quickly carried along by those around but I felt good and I ran the first 2 mile loop in  7.43 and 7.31 miles. The course was very rural often along single track roads. The roads were open to traffic but there was very little and this didn't appear to be a problem.

Final bend

Finish in site

There were frequent drinks stations during the race I believe there was either 3 or 4. Drinks were provided in small bottles most of this being wasted after a few sips and then lobbed into the verge. This must provide the marshalls quite a lot of work in the tidy up.

After about 5 miles I felt warm and wished I wasn't wearing my long sleeved top and I toyed with removing it and chucking it but decided to just ignore it and hope for the best.

Bobby Moore Charity Runners

It has been so long since I last raced that I had forgotten how so much of the race is about the mental focus and whole miles go by once you get yourself into a trance like focus on the race and who is around you. The course was generally flat but large sections of the race were spent running up hill down in short bursts. The strong breeze was a constant consideration.

I began to stiffen up after around 10 miles and I stopped at the drinks station here to have a drink. Although I realised I had slowed my pace I was confident of finishing which was my first target. My second target was to get under 2 hours and if I ran well to get under 1hr .50 mins.

Daisy Tractor Girl

So I was pleased to complete the race in 1hr 48 mins on my watch and officially I believe in 1 .48.03. My mile splits for the race were

7.43,7.31,8.09,8.01,8.27,8.11,8.21,8.15,8.28,8.19,8.24,8.34,8.13 and 1.17

This is an average of an 8.15 pace so plenty to work on here but I am going to have a restful week before considering what to do next?