So it has been a few days since the 2012 brass monkey and I've had some time to think about how it went and what it was like.
Usually when I do something as silly as running 13.1 miles I can't walk for a week afterwards and coming down stairs is something to definitely be avoided. Even the last half marathon I did, the Great North Run, back in September caused at least 3 or 4 days of proper inability to function in the leg department! This time though was different, for the first time ever I trained well for the event. I'd been nowhere near the distance but was consistently running 6 – 8 miles almost or at pace and being able to go out and do it again the next day. If it hadn't been for the break in training over the new year I may even have run the distance before the event, maybe?!
The first thing to say is that it was very windy on the day. I don't really know how much the wind will have affected peoples times but it felt like it was always against you either gusty crosswinds or in your face gusty headwinds. Somehow it never seemed to be behind you, but it must have been at some point! Some people were running in groups and trying to hide behind each other, some were running over on the wrong side of the road to try and hide behind hedges and others, like me, were just trying to ignore it and carry on! In my eyes at least the wind was far better than rain, ice or snow so I was fairly happy.
Apart from the wind race day was fairly uneventful. I lined up as usual somewhere near the back and left the speedy runners to squeeze their way nearer to the front. It is after all a chip timed race so my race didn't start until I had crossed the line which at the end of the day only took about 2 minutes compared to the 25 it took at the great north! I had decided, given the weather, to run in both long legs and long sleeves so popped to the bike shop and invested in some skins tights and a long sleeve skins top. Just the cheaper ones rather than the A400's that I got when I got my 3/4 length shorts. These seemed to do the trick and I was neither to warm or too cold regardless of the wind. More about them later though.
At the half way point the clock said 1 hour 6 minutes. This confused me a little but as I shouldn't have been there for another 10 minutes at least! At this point I knecked a sports gel thing, which was vile, and grabbed some water from the water stop. Most of the water landed up down my front as I can't run and drink water from a cup but I got enough to get rid of the taste of the gel! At this point everyone was thinking woohoo we'll turn around and the wind will carry us home, well we turned and the wind, well the wind didn't seem to be doing any carrying home! A couple of jelly snakes from the Badger and Jen stop picked me up and the trek to the finish was on. I think I got tunnel vision or something for most of the second half of the race. I don't remember much from the jelly snakes in Appleton Roebuck until coming into Bishopthorpe when weird stuff started to happen. I noticed that I was overtaking people which is not how things normally go for me at this point in a half marathon. More to the point I was overtaking people who had cruised past me at miles 3, 4, 5 and so on. Normally that would be me, overcook it at the start with a few 8 minutes miles then collapse into a 14 minute mile or less stuper! I even found I was chatting to people that I was close to for any length of time. The weirdest thing happened over the A64 flyover with about a mile to go. I'd been chatting to a lady about what time she was aiming for and how I wasn't looking forward to the only hills on the course when going up the hill, yep up the hill, I left her behind. We caught up at the finish where we had both made personal best of under 2 hours 10 minutes!
So I finished with 2:09:50 showing on the clock. Even having seen 1:06 on the clock at half distance this was a surprise. It seems however that I did the second half quicker than the first. It's amazing what a bit of training can do! My official chip time was 2:07:18 which beats my all time personal best by about 25 minutes and my recent great north run time by almost 38 minutes!
Afterwards we all headed to the Sheards for sausage sandwiches and a little chill time before heading home. It was nice that so many friends came out to support those of us who were running. I haven't got any pictures of the finish but here is a couple of me when I got home. Firstly as I ran, less the hat, and secondly sporting my shiny new 30th anniversary brass monkey top.
I'm not the biggest fan of the brass monkey as a race. If it wasn't that it is my local race I probably wouldn't have done it and I really do doubt that I'll ever do it again unless I really am worried about that illusive personal best. It is probably a fantastic race for getting your personal best given that the closest thing to a hill on the course is a railway bridge and flyover but for me there is something missing. I am still not a proper runner, I'm a charity runner. A lot of proper runners don't like the great north run because it is too busy, there are too many people, it takes too long to get started and at the end of the day they can't get a good time. They'll like the brass monkey. I like the great north run because of the atmosphere. The very fact that there are over 50,000 people doing it is brilliant. Everyone is friendly and chatty, there are bands on the roundabouts and there are hundreds, if not thousands of locals out on the street cheering you on. I've never been particularly fussed about my time so long as it was somewhere near what I thought I could do I've always just been happy to get to the finish. The main thing I don't like about the brass monkey is that for the most part the roads aren't closed. They aren't busy roads but you always get some idiots screaming past you as if you weren't there. This didn't seem quite as bad this year as I was more in touch with the main pack than the last time I did the brass monkey but it was still pretty distracting when cars are squeezing past you. The rest of the runs I have entered this year are charity runs on closed roads with thousands of people pounding the streets to raise money for charity. That is what I like!
I'm very pleased to have quite convincingly beaten my personal best time for the half marathon, albeit in a faster, flatter, easier course than the great north. Who knows maybe I'll go even faster next time, I'm told the prospect of finishing in under 2 hours is now on the cards. I'll still just be happy to have made it to the finish! I can only put my time down to doing some proper training this time round. It has also conveniently caused me to lose over a stone since around September. I guess the training plays some part in the fact that I didn't hurt as much after the race as I usually do and could navigate stairs, both up and down, without too much trouble the very next day. I think this also has a lot to do with the skins. I don't know how it works or why but I swear the compression clothing plays some part in me being able to recover so quickly. It's Wednesday now and if it wasn't for the banging headache from a headcold I'm completely recovered and will be out running again tomorrow.
So maybe I will finish the next one in under 2 hours, maybe I will make a sub 5 hour marathon, maybe I am becoming a proper runner?! As I have said above I'm not a proper runner, I'm a charity runner. I'm doing this to raise money for 3 charities … if you haven't already sponsored me and have some spare cash please head to one of my 3 justgiving pages (or all of them!) and sponsor me. You can find out more about what I am doing over the year at http://www.allars.co.uk/jons-year-of-running/.
Justgiving page for Yorkshire Air Ambulance