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Jocelyn Brown |
bio |
real name: Nick
age: M40-44
live: Dorset
Mhero: Mark Allen
Fhero: Chrissie Wellington
best toy: treadmill
coffee or tea? coffee
Je regret: rien
Job: Body Mechanic
Long term goal: Kona |
In a nutshell |
Saw Ironman Hawaii on TV Christmas 1992
->Instantly transfixed
->Knew some day I would do it
->Chewed the Cud
-> Uni
-> Work
-> Marriage
-> house
-> baby
-> chewed more cud
-> children
-> went on holiday to Hawaii in Ironman week. Itch has not gone away.
-> chewed cud
-> kids at school now
-> getting creaky still chewing
-> chewed cud long enough
-> IMUK '07
-> that feels better
-> Alpe de Huez tri '09, '11
-> that was good
-> Sprint worlds, Budapest '10
-> that was fun
-> won 1st race, in 21st season
-> kids doing GCSEs
-> still feeling the love
-> one day... Kona.
-> one day...
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Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:12 pm fruit thief
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Today was the Blackmore Vale Half Marathon. The sixth time I have run this toughish early season half marathon. I like it because it is my local race, and gives something to focus on during the dark winter months.
In 2007 I trained for a marathon and an Ironman, and set my half-marathon PB on this course of 1:22:15
That year was exceptional, in recent years my times have been:
2010 = 1:26:22
2012 = 1:27:54
2015 = 1:30:47
2016 = 1:29:19
So - a decade on - how would I do?
Excuses first: I'm a older (43) and heavier (72.4kg) than I have ever been starting this race: My PB was set at age 33 and weighing under 69kg, after a winter of marathon training the likes of which I have never repeated
And yet I have been running consistently through December and January, stepping it up to 2 good runs of over 1 hour per week and 2 good running club sessions as well. Perhaps 30 miles per week since Christmas. On running club rep sessions I'm hitting 6 minute miles with a short recovery. Mid-week I am running with a friend who is faster than me, and somehow have found a new love of pounding the pavements.
This morning at about 8am I sat down to a bowl of porridge, a large glass of water, 3 cups of coffee, and at 10am I had a Cadbury cream egg. And then with 5 minutes to go a handful of jelly babies - I know they must have helped because they were still repeating on me by mile 10.
Conditions were ideal for running. Cool, damp after recent rain, 5 degrees, light 12mph wind from the North West. I wore a T shirt under my vest. But no gloves or hat and no glasses today.
Mile 1: (downhill) 6m17
Mile 2: 6m40
Mile 3: 6m21
Mile 4: 6m38
Mile 5: 6m35
I deliberately started off at a steady pace. I wanted to get to the half way point without really feeling I had started to work yet. After about 2 miles I tagged onto 2 ladies, who were steadily moving up through the field. Their pace was perfect for me. Comfortably quick, but I had another gear ready to deploy.
Mile 6: 7m02
At mile 6 comes a long hill. In previous years, having started too fast, this has often been where the wheels have started to come off my race. Not this year. I picked up the pace and left the ladies, catching and then passing a group of men in front. One of these young guys hung with me although I could tell by his breathing he was really working. (We ran together for the rest of the race, him puffing like a steam train the whole way - he really earned his finishers medal).
Mile 7: 6m19
Mile 8: 6m23
Mile 9: 6m13
At the top of the hill I was in the red zone for a minute, but there was a gentle descent to recover. After this, three flat fast miles - the middle miles of the race. I allowed myself to work during these miles, concentrating on form and imagining I was running reps on a Tuesday evening club session.
Mile 10: 6m51
Mile 11: 6m33
Mile 12: 6m34
In this race, Mile 10 is where the mental race starts. Runners turn left off the fast flat road, into the wind, and up a long but gently rising lane. From this point, the rest of the course is undulating and twisty. I achieved my main goal of hitting mile 10 ready to work hard, and so I dug in. The legs were feeling tired now, but I kept making them try to run fast.
Mile 13.1 (uphill): 8m04
The last 600m involves about 40m of vertical gain. Everyone slows and so did I, but perhaps I allowed myself to slow a little too much. Two runners I had passed earlier came back past me- the only two runners to pass me in the whole race, in fact.
I went through the halfway point in 43 minutes and 13 seconds, and the finish line in 1 hour 26 minutes and 33 seconds. Not quite a negative split, but as close as they come on this course I think. That's the result of getting the pacing right: my 3rd best time - despite being older and fatter than ever.
Could I go faster? Possibly. But I need to lose a few kilos and up the miles before my next race, Weymouth half marathon on the 12th March.
Onwards and upwards TTers
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Races 2015 |
Oxley Tri
2nd
CLS Aquathlon
1st
CLS mini sprint
2nd
Sherborne Tri
4th |
Races 2014 |
Sherborne Tri
5th
BVM half marathon
1h30 |
Races 2013 |
Yeovil Aquathlon
3rd
Wincanton Tri
6th
Gillingham Tri
1st
Bristol Sprint Tri
66th
Blandford Tri
6th
Sherborne Tri
2nd
Oxley Tri
5th |
Races 2012 |
Alpe de Huez short
102nd
Blandford Tri
3rd
Wessex Ridgeway 100km
1st Relay Team
Wincanton Aquathlon
4th
Leweston 10km
2nd |
Races 2011 |
Taunton Aquathlon
1000m/10km
53m27s
9th
Club La Santa Mini tri
54m33s
2nd
Wessex Ridgeway
100km XC relay
8h02m
2nd team!!!
DD Duathlon
3k/20k/3k
54m03s
1st
Oxley Sprint Tri
400m/30km/6km
9th
The Stickler
10.1mile hill XC
84m52s
72nd |
Races 2010 |
Blackmore Vale 1/2 mar
1:26
Taunton aquathlon 1km/10km
52:52 6th
Sherborne castle off road 10km
39:11 14th
Grendon sprint
1:11 20th
+qualified AG
Blandford 10km
38:12 5th
Race to the Bill
4th
Swanage Tri
2:12 13th
Budapest ITU Sprint
1:07 27th (M35) |
Races 2009 |
Blackmore Vale 1/2 mar
1h26m 43rd
Taunton Aquathlon 1km/10km
54m08s 11th
Dorchester Sprint
1h08m 9th
Weymouth Middle
4h32m 22nd
Alpe de Huez Long
7h55m 126th |
Races 2008 |
Club La Santa Mini Tri
54m 2nd
Sherborne LC Sprint Tri
1h20m 2nd
Southampton Sprint Tri
2 mins drafting 11th |
pics |
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