50 by 50 - Race 1, let my target commence

So with the goal set I proceeded to progress my target with the selected races being my competitive mile opportunities. The running mojo was still yet to be found, the desire to run at my best didn't inspire me, it was more to prove to myself that I was still capable of achieving the distances and as such pace was not the focus, just stamina.

The first race was the Milton Keynes Half Marathon (4th May 2015) an event that forms part of the larger Marathon event a race which was supposed to be my original goal but not a realistic objective based on my training commitment. The race conditions were fairly good be it a tad warm but for 13.1 miles I felt this would be bearable. On the lead up to the race my longest run had been 10 miles so I was pretty confident that the additional 3.1 miles were achievable especially as I was looking at running a manageable pace of 9.5 minute miles. The event spirit was high even to the point where I started to think that perhaps I could track the 9.0 minute mile pacer and this is how I started. The pacer was in my sight, how hard could this be? perhaps a bit harder than I thought, my pace dropped as did my sight of the pacer :-( but hey no worries, 9.5 minute miles was my target. The route was well supported thanks to the weather and the decision by the race group organisers to utilise more of the roads surrounding the main shopping area. As per my longest training run the 10 mile marker was reached with confidence and now the mind set was only 3.1 miles left, a lap of Olney, how achievable is that. Very achievable as it happens although the final mile found me digging deep and the run in at the MK Stadium saw my pace quicken if only for the crowd ;-)

Race 1 completed, 13.1 miles clocked in 2 hours 2:20 minutes which having not really trained was a satisfactory result in my eyes.