Christian Poulton made the familiar trip to Shoeburyness this weekend to combine the Southend Half Marathon and a family visit. And I made the same trip after a few weeks away from the track and in need of a jolt.
It turned out nice, for runners anyway – overcast, a little breeze coming off the Thames Estuary, a flat course, and some pretty good crowd support along the double out-and-back on the esplanade.
I think for the both of us training had hit something a post-marathon lull, and expectations were low. However, things went well. Roared on by family Christian finished in 3rd place in the M50 age group category (63rd overall) in a time of 1:27:05. And I finished first overall in a time 1:13:57.
Not sure if my time would have been fast enough to win most years, but by that stage I didn’t really care. I think I was in fourth at halfway, second by eight miles before unexpectedly finding myself in the lead with two and half to go. Then following the lead Harley-Davidson (Christian tells me that’s what it was, I have no idea) ran like a scared rabbit to the finish hoping not to be caught. Happily I wasn’t.
Christian very kindly delayed his Sunday roast in Southend and waited around after the race for nearly two hours, taking a photo at the presentation. So I have to put that up. It’s back to the track sessions now, where there are no trophies and just a lot of pain.
Comments