It was the perfect half marathon. 18000+ runners and the chance to finish inside Madejski Stadium. It is Britain's second biggest half marathon, and the precursor to the London Marathon. I'm talking about the Reading Half Marathon, Berkshire's premier road race.
Before I arrived in the UK, I knew about the Reading Half Marathon and resolved to enter as quickly as I could when I got into the country. With more participants than Auckland's premier road race, places were filling fast. I was keen to put the disappointment of Auckland behind me, and devote some serious training to Reading. First and foremost, I wanted to get under the magical 1:45:00 barrier, and then challenge the 1:40:00 mark. It was, at the time, a pretty optimistic goal considering my Auckland half marathon time was 1:52:16 a couple of months earlier.
Again, training for this event focused on speed and strength as I already had the endurance base to complete the half marathon; I just needed to get used to running at harder intensities for a longer period of time. In my hard training weeks, I ran the half marathon course in 1 hour 47 minutes, which is exactly my personal best time over that distance. I knew that I was on form, and that I would easily dip under 1:45:00. The question was: could I smash 1:40:00?
One of the things I discovered while training was listening to music on my iPod. Over the course of the training, I noted that some songs really gave me energy and that if I were to listen to these songs on race day, what kind of performance would I put in? So, a few days before the event, I got around to making a playlist of awesome songs. Out of 2000+ songs on my computer, I chose 25 heavy songs which lasted just over 1 hour 40 minutes. I also arranged the playlist in such a way that it roughly coincided with certain parts of the course, how well the songs flowed from one another, and that heavier songs would be played near the end for more heart-pumping motivation. If the playlist finished before I finished the race, then I failed to beat my target time of 1:40:00 (and I might as well not finish the race, haha just kidding!).
The other plan was to stick to the appropriate pace group, which is something I failed to do in earlier races. In order to beat 1:40:00 I had to stick with the 1:40:00 pace setter, but I was worried that the starting pace would be too fast and I would fade in the later stages of the race. So I decided to start with the 1:45:00 pace setter for around 8 km, and then, if I felt strong at that stage, try to catch the 1:40:00 pace setter over the remaining distance. By running 5 minutes/km pace for 8 km at 40 minutes, this meant I had to run the remaining 13 km in 60 minutes!
Race day arrived, and the start line atmosphere was absolutely crazy. Runners, supporters and the public all congregated along Longwater Avenue outside the stadium. Eventually I got into position, As the start gun sounded, the runners poured onto the course, and it took me around 4 minutes to join them. Just before I crossed the start line I quickly started the playlist of songs on my iPod. I instantly felt amped as Nightrain by Guns N' Roses started blasting into my ears. I was so amped that I even went ahead of the 1:45:00 pace setter in the opening mile. I was so carried away I wasn't even worried that I was starting too fast.
However I had a problem. Nightrain began to repeat itself. I realised that I somehow had my iPod on track repeat mode. So I had to fish the iPod out of my pocket, turn off the track repeat, and skip to the next song, Always by Bon Jovi. This forced me to slow down a bit, and by then the 1:45:00 pacesetter overtook me and was ahead by some 50-100 metres. Once I fixed the problem, I decided to just hold pace a bit and, slowly but surely, catch the 1:45:00 pacesetter over the next 7 km. Always by Bon Jovi was a slow power ballad designed to help me hold pace in the opening kilometres.
Eventually Don't Stop Me Now by Queen played on my iPod, and this was when I started turning things on. I managed to catch the 1:45:00 pacesetter and had a brief chat with him. He said that we were going slightly faster than the designated pace. Freddie Mercury's vocals was belting into my eardrums so forcefully that I naturally sprinted up the first big hill of the course. At that point, around 2.5 miles into the run, I overtook the 1:45:00 pacesetter. It was time, I felt, to launch an assault on the 1:40:00 pacesetter. As I passed mile 3, the stopwatch indicated around 23 minutes. That was faster than 5 min/km. I was concerned that I would blow up, but the music was incessantly driving me on. DEEN, Blondie, Zed, Goldenhorse and Elemeno P were pushing me. At times I was singing along, or doing overdriven guitar movements, much to the amusement of other runners. But I was relentless. At the 10 km mark, the time was around 47 minutes. If I held this pace exactly, I would be very close to a 1:40:00 finishing time.
Past the 10 km mark, we ran into the town centre, where the majority of the crowd support was positioned. The whole of Friar Street was lined with supporters, the atmosphere was electric. Kids were sticking out their hands, and I gave them all high-fives. There was musical entertainment in the form of a drumming band. Actually there were several drumming ensembles along various stages of the course. As we made our way to Russell Street for the second big hill, most of the runners started to fade. But with a bit of Sash! beating in my ears I still had energy in me to take the hill. Past the top of the hill was the 8 mile mark, and I passed it in exactly 60 minutes. This meant that from the 10 km mark I was starting to get faster; I was intending to do a big negative split.
The route continued westward before looping back towards the town centre and heading onto the A33 dual carriageway towards Madejski Stadium, which was 3 miles away. The carriageway was dead straight, and looking straight ahead proved to be mental torture for tired runners, because things in the distance weren't getting any smaller as the runners plodded forward. The start of the A33 was the 10 mile mark and it was here that I caught up to the 1:40:00 pace setter. We chatted for a bit and he said that we were slightly faster than the intended pace. So what else was new? I still felt strong and decided to go for broke. With Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses belting in my ear I wasn't satisfied with just getting under 1:40:00; I wanted to destroy 1:40:00. This time I tried surging, where I did hard running for 30 seconds, followed by gradually slowing to normal race pace. The acceleration and momentum generated from the hard running would help me maintain a faster race pace for a few seconds, like a car moving forwards on its own acceleration without the driver pressing the accelerator. It proved to be a masterful stroke as I started passing many runners in front of me both on the acceleration stage and the cruise stage. Passing each runner, with music belting away, only made me want to run harder.
The stadium was finally in sight, but there was a big hairpin loop to complete before entering the stadium. The climatic song on my playlist, Lose Yourself by Eminem, began, and it was during this track that I really ran my hardest. As I ran, I saw an ambulance approach a group of marshalls attending a downed runner, who had to be given oxygen. He was so close to finishing, and he absolutely blew up. With me going all out, I was hoping that I wasn't going to share the same fate as him. By the time the song ended, I was already outside the stadium, with another 400 metres to go. I yanked out the ear plugs as I wanted to soak up the atmosphere as I entered the stadium. Like a high profile sports star entering the stadium before a big game in front of a huge crowd of roaring supporters, so did I as I ran through the stadium entrance onto the laid out track towards the finish line. The crowds in the stands were roaring. I sprinted towards the finish line, both arms raised in the air. I crossed the finish line in 1:36:40, absolutely smashing the 1:40:00 mark. In doing that, I finished the last 5 miles in 36 minutes 40 seconds, a huge negative split. 7 minute miles! I don't know how I sustained that effort, but I know I can do it now!
After the race I got a medal, a space blanket for keeping warm and other nice goodies. I immediately headed to the massage tent for a well-earned rub down. Admittedly, I still felt strong, the muscles weren't aching or cramping up, and I felt like I could run a few more kilometres. This is encouraging signs for my upcoming marathon in Berlin. This meant that my preparation had gone very well. In the coming weeks, I will do a review of the training programme and incorporate most of it in my training for Berlin.
I'm really stoked with the result. I started with a goal to break 1:45:00, tried to break 1:40:00, and ended up with 1:36:40. It was a very successful day.
And if you want to know the playlist of songs, here it is, in the order that they were played out to me.
Before I arrived in the UK, I knew about the Reading Half Marathon and resolved to enter as quickly as I could when I got into the country. With more participants than Auckland's premier road race, places were filling fast. I was keen to put the disappointment of Auckland behind me, and devote some serious training to Reading. First and foremost, I wanted to get under the magical 1:45:00 barrier, and then challenge the 1:40:00 mark. It was, at the time, a pretty optimistic goal considering my Auckland half marathon time was 1:52:16 a couple of months earlier.
Again, training for this event focused on speed and strength as I already had the endurance base to complete the half marathon; I just needed to get used to running at harder intensities for a longer period of time. In my hard training weeks, I ran the half marathon course in 1 hour 47 minutes, which is exactly my personal best time over that distance. I knew that I was on form, and that I would easily dip under 1:45:00. The question was: could I smash 1:40:00?
One of the things I discovered while training was listening to music on my iPod. Over the course of the training, I noted that some songs really gave me energy and that if I were to listen to these songs on race day, what kind of performance would I put in? So, a few days before the event, I got around to making a playlist of awesome songs. Out of 2000+ songs on my computer, I chose 25 heavy songs which lasted just over 1 hour 40 minutes. I also arranged the playlist in such a way that it roughly coincided with certain parts of the course, how well the songs flowed from one another, and that heavier songs would be played near the end for more heart-pumping motivation. If the playlist finished before I finished the race, then I failed to beat my target time of 1:40:00 (and I might as well not finish the race, haha just kidding!).
The other plan was to stick to the appropriate pace group, which is something I failed to do in earlier races. In order to beat 1:40:00 I had to stick with the 1:40:00 pace setter, but I was worried that the starting pace would be too fast and I would fade in the later stages of the race. So I decided to start with the 1:45:00 pace setter for around 8 km, and then, if I felt strong at that stage, try to catch the 1:40:00 pace setter over the remaining distance. By running 5 minutes/km pace for 8 km at 40 minutes, this meant I had to run the remaining 13 km in 60 minutes!
Race day arrived, and the start line atmosphere was absolutely crazy. Runners, supporters and the public all congregated along Longwater Avenue outside the stadium. Eventually I got into position, As the start gun sounded, the runners poured onto the course, and it took me around 4 minutes to join them. Just before I crossed the start line I quickly started the playlist of songs on my iPod. I instantly felt amped as Nightrain by Guns N' Roses started blasting into my ears. I was so amped that I even went ahead of the 1:45:00 pace setter in the opening mile. I was so carried away I wasn't even worried that I was starting too fast.
However I had a problem. Nightrain began to repeat itself. I realised that I somehow had my iPod on track repeat mode. So I had to fish the iPod out of my pocket, turn off the track repeat, and skip to the next song, Always by Bon Jovi. This forced me to slow down a bit, and by then the 1:45:00 pacesetter overtook me and was ahead by some 50-100 metres. Once I fixed the problem, I decided to just hold pace a bit and, slowly but surely, catch the 1:45:00 pacesetter over the next 7 km. Always by Bon Jovi was a slow power ballad designed to help me hold pace in the opening kilometres.
Eventually Don't Stop Me Now by Queen played on my iPod, and this was when I started turning things on. I managed to catch the 1:45:00 pacesetter and had a brief chat with him. He said that we were going slightly faster than the designated pace. Freddie Mercury's vocals was belting into my eardrums so forcefully that I naturally sprinted up the first big hill of the course. At that point, around 2.5 miles into the run, I overtook the 1:45:00 pacesetter. It was time, I felt, to launch an assault on the 1:40:00 pacesetter. As I passed mile 3, the stopwatch indicated around 23 minutes. That was faster than 5 min/km. I was concerned that I would blow up, but the music was incessantly driving me on. DEEN, Blondie, Zed, Goldenhorse and Elemeno P were pushing me. At times I was singing along, or doing overdriven guitar movements, much to the amusement of other runners. But I was relentless. At the 10 km mark, the time was around 47 minutes. If I held this pace exactly, I would be very close to a 1:40:00 finishing time.
Past the 10 km mark, we ran into the town centre, where the majority of the crowd support was positioned. The whole of Friar Street was lined with supporters, the atmosphere was electric. Kids were sticking out their hands, and I gave them all high-fives. There was musical entertainment in the form of a drumming band. Actually there were several drumming ensembles along various stages of the course. As we made our way to Russell Street for the second big hill, most of the runners started to fade. But with a bit of Sash! beating in my ears I still had energy in me to take the hill. Past the top of the hill was the 8 mile mark, and I passed it in exactly 60 minutes. This meant that from the 10 km mark I was starting to get faster; I was intending to do a big negative split.
The route continued westward before looping back towards the town centre and heading onto the A33 dual carriageway towards Madejski Stadium, which was 3 miles away. The carriageway was dead straight, and looking straight ahead proved to be mental torture for tired runners, because things in the distance weren't getting any smaller as the runners plodded forward. The start of the A33 was the 10 mile mark and it was here that I caught up to the 1:40:00 pace setter. We chatted for a bit and he said that we were slightly faster than the intended pace. So what else was new? I still felt strong and decided to go for broke. With Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses belting in my ear I wasn't satisfied with just getting under 1:40:00; I wanted to destroy 1:40:00. This time I tried surging, where I did hard running for 30 seconds, followed by gradually slowing to normal race pace. The acceleration and momentum generated from the hard running would help me maintain a faster race pace for a few seconds, like a car moving forwards on its own acceleration without the driver pressing the accelerator. It proved to be a masterful stroke as I started passing many runners in front of me both on the acceleration stage and the cruise stage. Passing each runner, with music belting away, only made me want to run harder.
The stadium was finally in sight, but there was a big hairpin loop to complete before entering the stadium. The climatic song on my playlist, Lose Yourself by Eminem, began, and it was during this track that I really ran my hardest. As I ran, I saw an ambulance approach a group of marshalls attending a downed runner, who had to be given oxygen. He was so close to finishing, and he absolutely blew up. With me going all out, I was hoping that I wasn't going to share the same fate as him. By the time the song ended, I was already outside the stadium, with another 400 metres to go. I yanked out the ear plugs as I wanted to soak up the atmosphere as I entered the stadium. Like a high profile sports star entering the stadium before a big game in front of a huge crowd of roaring supporters, so did I as I ran through the stadium entrance onto the laid out track towards the finish line. The crowds in the stands were roaring. I sprinted towards the finish line, both arms raised in the air. I crossed the finish line in 1:36:40, absolutely smashing the 1:40:00 mark. In doing that, I finished the last 5 miles in 36 minutes 40 seconds, a huge negative split. 7 minute miles! I don't know how I sustained that effort, but I know I can do it now!
After the race I got a medal, a space blanket for keeping warm and other nice goodies. I immediately headed to the massage tent for a well-earned rub down. Admittedly, I still felt strong, the muscles weren't aching or cramping up, and I felt like I could run a few more kilometres. This is encouraging signs for my upcoming marathon in Berlin. This meant that my preparation had gone very well. In the coming weeks, I will do a review of the training programme and incorporate most of it in my training for Berlin.
I'm really stoked with the result. I started with a goal to break 1:45:00, tried to break 1:40:00, and ended up with 1:36:40. It was a very successful day.
And if you want to know the playlist of songs, here it is, in the order that they were played out to me.
- Guns N' Roses: Nightrain
- Bon Jovi: Always
- Katy Perry: Hot N Cold
- Queen: Don't Stop Me Now
- DEEN: ROSSO!!
- Irene Cara: Flashdance...What A Feeling
- Blondie: Maria
- Zed: Hard To Find Her
- Goldenhorse: Run Run Run
- Elemeno P: Verona
- King Of Fighters: The Way To Rebirth
- Zed: Don't Worry Baby
- Bon Jovi: Runaway
- DEEN: STRONG SOUL
- Sash!: Colour The World
- Shannon Noll: C'mon Aussie C'mon
- Bryan Adams: Summer Of '69
- Europe: The Final Countdown
- The Exponents: Why Does Love Do This To Me
- Guns N' Roses: Sweet Child O' Mine
- Bon Jovi: It's My Life
- Starship: We Built This City On Rock And Roll
- Eminem: Lose Yourself
- Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (already crossed the finish line at this point)
- Kenny Loggins: Danger Zone (not played)
