Race Report: Keswick Half Marathon 2010
Race date: 2.5.2010
Official Finishing Time: 1:38:02
Official Position: 107/569
As some readers may know, I’ve been getting into running quite a lot since I got my Garmin Forerunner 405CX, which I reviewed in a previous post. I now try to run about 5 days a week and I covered about 230km in April. The Keswick Half Marathon was my first proper race (I’ve just done a 5k Parkrun in Newcastle before), and I was quite excited about it.
We drove to Keswick in the morning with a rented car (Ulrike did the driving) and arrived about an hour before the race. The weather was beautiful, some sunny spells and great views of the Lake District, although it was a little bit chilly. It was strange to run in the Lake District, which is a very familiar hill walking area for me. The organisation of the event was rather minimal (no chips or anything like that), but smooth, and I at least had no trouble.
The course itself is quite hilly, and my Garmin gave a total height gain of 314m, although it felt like more than that! Running felt pretty good in general, although I had a queasy feeling in my stomach for most of the race. Based on my 5k PB (20:50), the McMillan running calculator suggests a 1:36:18 half marathon time for me. However, I knew that this is a hilly course, so I aimed at sub 1:40. I was aiming at 48min for the first 10k and I did it in 47min. I was quite pleased with that, as most of the hills were on the first half of the course. I felt pretty good at this stage, but started to fade a bit around the 15k mark. Still, I managed the second 10k in 46min, this was mostly flat though. The last 1.1k was hardly a sprint at 4:27, I had nothing more to give at that point. Actually, the Garmin gave a total distance of 21.03km, so just 60m short of the official distance — that much could be just due to GPS error though.
The Garmin gave me a finishing time of 1:37:36, so I’m certainly happy with that! That makes the average pace 4:38/k. There were a total of 569 runners at the event, and my overall position was 107., and I was the 57th male in my age group. The official results are here. My official time is 1:38:02, but everyone seemed to have a slightly slower time than they should’ve, and I’m certain that I was under 1:38:00, so my Garmin time might be more reliable. Ulrike’s relative performance was much better than mine: she finished at around 1:43:30, and was the 20th female overall.
My 5k splits were as follows:
5k 23:50
10k 23:10
15k 22:24
20k 23:36
So, I managed to keep it quite steady despite the undulating course. I was pretty much out of steam in the end though, and I lost maybe 10 places in the last 3-4 miles. I was impressed by the determination of the runners around me, they just kept increasing the pace during the last 5k, and I struggled to keep up.
I was certainly tired in the end and felt like I gave it pretty much everything I had in me, but didn’t feel too bad otherwise. However, about 15min after the race a strange feeling of illness hit me: my stomach felt horrible, I felt like I was freezing, and I was a little bit dizzy as well. Not sure what caused it: I think I took in enough liquid, although I hardly had a drink during the race. I did have about 2dl of Powerade shortly before though. Whatever the cause, this feeling of illness was quite awful, and lasted at least a couple of hours. We had a meal in Keswick afterwards, but I had no appetite whatsoever and struggled to eat anything. Well, I started to feel a bit better during the drive back, and I was fine in the evening. I already went for an easy run today. I’d hope to avoid this in future races if possible though.
There’s more data on my Garmin Connect page. For instance, my average heart rate was 173bpm and it peaked at 184bpm. There’s also a map of the course there.
I’d like to do a 10k race next, but I will probably start by doing another 5k Parkrun this Saturday in Newcastle — I’m hoping to get sub 20min. I’ve still got a good three months to train for the Helsinki City Marathon (I’ve already signed up for it). I’d love to get close to 3:15:00, but that would require a pace similar to what I had for this HM for the duration of the marathon. I certainly can’t do that yet, but we’ll see how the training goes…
I remember you passing me on the run back from Borrowdale into Keswick (tights and long top, black with yellow flashes?), you were looking pretty good, but then again so did everyone as I slipped back in the last four miles! I finished about a minute behind you in 117th.
bikely.com suggests the total height gain was between 2000′ and 2100′.
Your illness feeling after the race mirrors what I tend to get. The lack of appetite I think is down to your body using up the fuel in your stomach part way through the race and switching to fat-burning, and hence the appetite shuts itself down as the body does not see the need for food then. The sickness feeling I think is connected to that, as I only tend to get that when I’ve seriously buried myself in a race, as I had to on Sunday! I think you might have to just get used to it in the longer races. Force-feeding yourself afterwards helps, I’d recommend biscuits, nothing rich.
Re predicting your time for the Helsinki marathon, I did 1.31 for my local (flat) half in January and 1.39 for Keswick, so that’s roughly the impact of the hills, though I did have a really good race in the former and less so in the latter. A friend of mine suggests that for a marathon you need to double your half marathon time and add 15-30 minutes depending on how good your stamina is. Simply expecting to run half mara pace for the whole marathon doesn’t work.
Good luck!
Yeah, that’s right, I was in full black with some yellowy bits. Nice to meet a fellow runner from the race! I certainly didn’t pass many people in the last four miles, maybe a couple.
2000 feet sounds more like what the height gain felt like, I think that it might be closer to the truth.
Thanks for your comments regarding the post-race illness. I think I’ll make sure to have some sports drinks and easy nibbles available post-race next time, perhaps that would help a bit.
As to the marathon, I do realize that the marathon time will be much slower than 2xHM, I’m just hoping to improve a bit during the coming months! Sounds like you’re very close to sub 1.30 HM if the conditions are right, good luck with your future races! Have you got anything in particular planned?
Hi,
I seem to recall the hair from the start.
This was my first half for over 20 years and the hills got me big style. I finished way back on 2.08. Still a bit of work for my sub 2hr.
Anyway, here’s the link to my garmin report for the race. There are some differences in height and even distance between the two reports. I wonder if i took a wrong turn (a half hour one) ha, ha.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31973520
Good race
Alan
Hi Tuomas,
I think i followed you for most of this race – lost you for a while just around Grange (where i seemed to have a bit of a bad spell- even though the hard work of the hills was behind!) Eventually caught you up again to finish just a second or so behind you- position 108! And i agree that the timing on the results is out (the clock at the finishline read 1hr 37m37s when i went through) – so your garmin time would appear correct.
Good luck with the Marathon – (i have entered Kielder Water Marathon in October so need to put some good training in too!)
Hi there Angela,
You must be the one in the Carlisle Tri gear? I remember passing you at some point on the first half, you were looking pretty good though, so I thought you might pass me again — and as it happens you very nearly did!
Incidentally, I was looking at the Carlisle Tri 10k in June, as I’d love to do a 10k race. It’s the only one around which is reasonably priced and relatively easy to reach, but still a bit of a trip from Durham (as I don’t have a car). Will you be running there?
The Kielder marathon looks great as well, it’s probably a tough one though! Best of luck for that, maybe see you at another race some time!
Hi Alan,
Haha, yeah, my hair and beard are pretty distinctive! I actually had some trouble keeping my hair in order for this once, still looking for a fool proof way to deal with it — other than cutting it that is!
Looks like you managed some negative splits after the beginning, so nice running! I think that the total height gain must be closer to 500 meters or so, as Edward suggested, the GPS is never that reliable for it…
Good luck with your future races, I’m sure you could already manage sub 2 hours on a flat course!
P.S. Some nice shots on your website!
Yes that was me Tuomas and yes i expect to be running at the Carlisle Tri 10k, so maybe see you there. I’ll look out for the long hair when i’m running!
Hi Tuomas,
I,m glad I found your forum as I finally got the race results after going into the official website all week with no luck. I have done lots of half’s as well as 8 full marathons and Keswick must have been the hilliest I have ever done. There are a couple out in the western isles of Harris and Skye which are very hilly but last week took some beating. Edward said between 2000′and 2010′ and it certainly felt like that. The fact that the hills were early made it harder for me as it takes me a wee while to get going but I also felt the road back from Borrowdale was tough with a couple of early hills then undulations as well as a poor surface and cold headwind. We’re never happy, are we? It was lovely scenery all the way round and the sun was shining so we must be thankful for that. After 2 miles I heard someone saying the time was 13′ 30” which surprised me { I tend not to look at splits} and felt if I could average 7 minute miles in this terrain I’d be doing well and I was pleased with my effort {1′ 31′ 43”} at the finish. Like you I was a wee bit queasy at the end for some strange reason as it’s not the norm for me but was OK in an hour or so. Good luck to all your fellow runners inthis forum, I enjoyed reading their comments, James F. White Irvine AC Scotland
Hi James,
I don’t know why they haven’t posted the results on the website — I managed to find them by googling. It seems that Google is bringing a lot of fellow runners here as well!
It was certainly a tough race, but I’m quite happy that my first one was tough: perhaps the next one will feel easy! You’re right about the second half though, maybe not so many hills, but the road was not ideal for running, especially with the traffic. Well, be that as it may, you got a great time, so congrats for that! I wonder, how much slower would you say that this was compared to a flatish HM?