Ria de Ferrol Half Marathon

[Riazor Blue]

There were around 350 of us all told, I started at the back as usual – usually because I arrive late at the start line. As I crossed the start line I started the HRM. It would be interesting to see how my heart rate acted under race conditions. I had rehearsed the race a few times in my mind and had a good idea of my tactics: Run comfortably the first 5km, see how the time is after the first five and increase the pace if I’m over 21 minutes and I’m feeling OK. The plan was to increase again at 10km and flat out for the last 6.

I set off nice and easy, we had a small loop to complete before taking the main road to Fene, where we cross the Ria de Ferrol. On the other side we turned right to follow the Ria out to sea and passed the 5Km mark in 22:09. I was a little slower than I wanted to be, but all was going well. I upped the pace a little and settled in for the ‘nitty-gritty’ of the race. At around 7km I looked at my HR for the first time and although I thought I was cruising, it registered 180, when my max is 187. I thought this was a bit high, and wondered if I should slow up a bit. It was around here aswell that I began to wish that I had paid better attention to my feet last week. I could feel the start of a blister forming under the hard skin that remained. In training it’s never a problem, but of course with the firmer lightweight shoes I use for races, one needs to take care.

We turned left and headed towards Ferrol at around 8km, it was uphill towards the centre then out the other side of Ferrol on the flat before passing the 10km mark as we took the road towards Ortiguiera. It was at 10km that the blister on my left foot burst. I hadn’t really thought too much about it until it burst, then half a kilometer later it was fine again. I went through the 10km in 45:18, which was slower than I had wanted. The secons 5km was slower than the first, which was due to my preoccupation with my 97% heart rate. I resolved to run the second half of the race faster and forget about the HRM.

I had, subconsciously, not allowed anyone to overtake me up till now. It had not been a tactic as such but the course is a little undulating. As I have said in the past, I’m not brilliant going uphill, but quite speedy going down. What happened was that each up was immediately followed by a down and so if anyone passed me going uphill, I immediately overtook them again on the corresponding down. I don’t know if this stopped people trying again, but from km 8 to km 18 or so, only one guy passed me.

At 15km, which took me 1h07m, I stepped on the gas. I figured that my HR wasn’t going to kill me, and 6 km is not far. I had been picking people off slowly but surely all the race, now I started to focus more on the runners three or four ahead. If possible, I decided, I would keep my HR above 180 and catch the runners in front.

We crossed the Ria once again and entered Neda again. It was an uphill part at 18km where I was overtaken by a guy who hat tried twice before (a runner from ‘El Club de la Patilla Estrecha’). I stayed with him until the water station at 20km, where I took a bottle and he didn’t. He got away. The watch said 18m54 for that 5km section, but that must be badly measured. The last km, in which the blister on my right foot burst, I passed 3 more runners to finish in 1hour 30 minutes and 45 seconds on my watch. 1:31:02 on the official.

I’ve got mixed feelings about the time, it’s a PB, but I know I could/should have run the second and third 5 kms faster than I did. It was only the HRM that held me back. On the other hand I ran the second half over 4 minutes faster than the first, so a good negative split.