Sunday - 06/10/13

I did the Burnham on Sea half marathon at an easy 8:30 ish pace. It was a warm morning so it was a bit tough. There were three water stations so I had two cups at the middle water station.  It was a very warm day so at the moment I felt a little bit sick and tired after the race. Too much sun and the course of typhoid vaccination capsule that I’m on won’t have helped. I forgot to take my Garmin so I didn’t record my progress but I did record my mile split times on my Timex Ironman watch. It was a flat course, I started at the back and jogged it - doing about 8 and a half minute mile pace all the way. A good thing about running at that pace is that you usually find some eye candy to relieve the monotony! In this case there was one particularly attractive young lady who I tucked in behind for a several miles. We did exchange places once or twice until I left her behind close to the 9 mile mark. 

I should point out that while running at 8:30 pace I’m not just looking at young ladies bottoms’. Different people have very different running styles and I find it interesting and useful to analyse the running style of the participants as they progress along the route.

For instance. A young lady in the Burnham on Sea Half Marathon had a very solid upper body and shoulders - so obviously works out in the gym a fair amount. Meanwhile there was a guy who had a strange action where he hardly bent one of his knees. He bent his left leg sufficiently to swing it through on the stride but that is a very unusual and inefficient  way of running. I thought to myself “I can’t let a stiff legged man beat me”!

Two others that come to mind from previous races are a girl whose left foot swung outwards during her stride rather than swinging pendulum like in the direction of travel and a guy with a nodding head which Churchill the insurance dog would be proud of. I could help people like that! Mind you Paula Radcliffe’s style was not the best and she did OK for a while without my advice!

The car park was next to the race headquarters at the Sports Ground and the refreshments included a bacon bap and chips for £3 which I did not resist! Possibly the only negative point was that it wasn't exactly traffic free with several miles being run along fairly busy roads. There were 200 runners.