Silverstone FLHM

[Alfred]

Silverstone Half

Congratulations, Andy, on your web site. It is really quite professional.

I join Daryl in thanking you for kindly giving us a lift to Silverstone. We would have drained all our energy just getting to the site on public transportation!

I have been running in a more or less regular way since October 2001. Since that time I have run in two half marathons not including Silverstone: I ran in High Wycombe in July 2002 and in Windsor in September 2002. Both race courses, but particularly the former, are rather undulating and consequently not particularly well suited for beginners, or in any case not conducive to PB’s. In the case of High Wycombe this was made worse by the lack of organization so that, for example, there were essentially no water stops and at some points runners were left to their own devices fending off car traffic. Windsor was, in contrast, a beautiful and well organized race but still not as flat as I would have liked. All this meant that despite the relative monotony of the formula one track at Silverstone, I rather enjoyed running on an essentially flat course in a very well organized race.

Having started my running in October 2001 from a rather poor athletic base, it has taken me a while to feel comfortable with my running. I was pleased with my finishing time of 2:02:08, which represented an improvement of around thirteen minutes from Windsor. I felt well throughout though I did slow down considerably after mile 10 or so, which was the most significant frustration for me as up until mile 11 I had been convinced that I would end up with a well under two hour time.

I am also training for the full marathon in London which will take place in less than six weeks. The thought of running twice the distance from Sunday is, I must admit, rather daunting. In this, which will be my second full marathon, (I ran my first one rather prematurely in Paris last year) I am hoping for sub four and a half hours. Incidentally, I will be running the London Marathon for the Meningitis Trust. In a few days I will be posting on this forum a link to a web page where donations can be made securely, in case some reader of this note may wish to support me.

Alfred.