The main question running through my mind this morning ahead of the Cov Half was which pacing strategy to adopt. At the Kenilworth Half last month, I went for the safest pacing strategy, heading out at a very easy pace which I knew I could comfortably sustain through to the finish, knowing that I could lift the pace across the second half if I felt good. It is the strategy I have used for most of my recent Half Marathons, albeit many of those were on hot Summer days where a cautious approach is always wise.
However, on a pleasant late October morning, part of me wanted to go with a more aggressive pacing strategy. My legs felt really good yesterday and my stamina proved sufficient to allow me to finish the Yorkshire Marathon strongly two weeks ago, both of which encouraged me to think I could go quite a lot faster than Kenilworth. The Coventry Half Marathon route is also ideal for a more aggressive pacing strategy, since almost all of the hills are covered within the first 8 miles. With a huge range of pacers to choose from, I lined up behind the 1:35 pacer. My plan was simple, stick with the pacers for as long as I could and don’t think about lifting the pace until after 8 miles.
The first kilometre was chaotic. The city centre section of the course is the first and last kilometre, and contains a lot of twists and turns, changes of surface and also some sections where the road narrows considerably. It felt like I was sprinting to stay even remotely close to the pacers, though in fact that kilometre was completed at the same pace I averaged in 2016, which did somewhat put things in perspective.
It was still considerably faster than the pace I thought I was following, though as we got onto wider roads during the second kilometre, the pace did settle considerably. The first 5km contains a few undulations and on the uphills I couldn’t stay with the pacers, though I did start to bring them back every downhill or flat section. I went through 5km in exactly 22 minutes, still with the pacer group but already feeling a bit ragged.
I decided to stick to the same fuelling strategy I had used in the Yorkshire Marathon, so took my first energy gel after 30 minutes. That also coincided with reaching the part of the route where the hardest hills start, and trying to take on a gel on a tough section forced me to slightly ease off the pace. I lost touch with the pacer group, and to be honest that was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. I knew what lay between me and the easier sections of the course, and by following my own pace I had much more confidence about my ability to get through to the finish in somewhat decent shape.
When I got to 8 miles, any thoughts of lifting the pace immediately were put to one side. My pacing on the hills had been pretty sensible, but having gone out pretty hard before we reached those hills, I instead tried to use the next two miles as a period of recovery. Alas, I didn’t really recover. My pace was fairly consistent from 8 to 10 miles, but then my feet started to hurt a lot. In hindsight, my shoe choice was wrong for today. I wore my pair of ASICS Dynablast, which when my form is good feel great, but as soon as my form starts to falter even slightly, they feel horrible. That meant I couldn’t really enjoy the steeper downhill section, and was actually quite pleased when the road started going uphill again.
For at least 20 minutes, I’d been convinced that the next pairs of feet to overtake me would belong to the 1:40 pacers, and when I got to 12 miles, that became a reality. Initially I didn’t try to stick with the pacers, since I’d started in front of them, so assumed that difference would mean I was comfortably outside 1:40. However, with about 500 metres to go a spectator shouted that I was on course to go sub 1:40, and when I checked my watch for the first time, I had just over two minutes to make that a reality. I managed a strong sprint up to the finish by the Cathedral, crossing the line in 1:40:09.
If I wanted to view that time as a glass half empty, I’ve gone about 7 minutes slower on each of my Cov Half appearances now. If I was to look at things glass half full, neither of my previous Cov Half Marathons were two weeks after a full Marathon, and I did manage to go 10 minutes faster than the Kenilworth Half last month.
The time though is somewhat irrelevant. My pacing strategy didn’t pay off as I definitely suffered towards the end, and yet it was still the right strategy. It has been a very long time since I entered a race with a pacing strategy which had any possibility of failing, which means I haven’t found where my limits are. Today was a good day to change that, on a course I know well in really favourable conditions, and I certainly now have a much clearer idea about where my limits lie. My next event is the Coombe 8 (miles), and whilst I’ll need to see what the conditions are like before coming up with any strategies, I should hopefully have a better chance at finding a strategy which is aggressive but slightly more sustainable.
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