2016 Heartbreaker half marathon

A nervous smile before the start - with some of the "Hedgie's"
Entering a half marathon seemed like a good idea when it was months away....  "sure" I said when Donna asked if I wanted to join her on a 13ish mile run through the New Forest, a race called the "heartbreaker" due both to the expected temperature at the end of Feb and the hills you have to run up and down during the race.
But, it was going to be good Ironman training so why not, sign me up, I'll have loads of time to train for it!

By mid Feb however thing's weren't looking as rosy as I'd hoped on the training front.  A strained back in the first week of Jan 2016 meant nearly 2 weeks of total rest just as I was getting back into training after the Christmas break - despite the horrible weather we'd been having - and although a couple of visits to the sports massage clinic helped I didn't really start running again until the beginning of Feb and even then it was only 5-10k during lunch breaks at work.

On the up side I'd started running with a chap from work and found this to be much better motivation than simply going out on my own - so every cloud and all that!

So, the morning of the 28th Feb 2016 arrived - cold, very cold, but thankfully dry and we headed out into the New Forest to register and to try not to think about all the reasons the race is called "Heartbreaker"!

There were a fair few "Hedgies" (Hedge End Running Club) running and the obligatory selfies were taken - it's these pre-race moments when being part of a club really helps, the camaraderie goes a long way to remove the nerves.

One of the guys from the Triathlon club, Martin, was planning to run the full marathon (both the half and full events were being held on the same day, the latter being more laps of the same course) but due to injury had stepped down to running the half and agreed to run along with Donna and I as we thought we'd be about the same pace.

I know the New Forest fairly well but I'd forgotten to read the route fully and equate it with the trails and paths I know so whilst I was prepared for a hilly run, I wasn't prepared for quite how hilly it would be.... and the worst part of the Heartbreaker (for me anyway) is the walk down to the bottom of the hill outside of Sandy Balls (the holiday park nr Fordingbridge in the New Forest) for the start - which see's you run back up the very same hill and on, past the holiday camp, and on up along the side of the road to the start of the off-road section accessed from the car park at the top of Godshill ridge.

There are some fairly decent hills from the car park through Pitts Wood Inclosure through to Hampton Ridge and Martyn and I decided to run on ahead of Donna (at her request!) to complete the 2 "there and back" runs of the ridge path.

Garmin Connect log from Heartbreaker Half Marathon
The return leg felt very welcome after the hilly, and windy, ridge path and the last downhill section on the road allowed Martyn and I to push the pace up slightly, from our average of 9m/mile, to 8:44 and then the last mile at 7:04m/mile - adrenaline has a lot to answer for!


Crossing the finish line under the 2hr mark was a time that I hadn't hoped or thought possible for my first half - especially considering the terrain - and I have Martyn to thank for dragging me round, without someone else running alongside to take my mind off the miles and keep my going my pace would have dropped for sure!

The all important medal!


Knackered but happy, with Martyn & Donna


Location: Sandy Balls Holiday Village, Godshill, Fordingbridge, Hampshire SP6 2JZ, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wild camping on Cadair Idris

Image
Leaving Romsey behind at 2pm on a Saturday may seem like a crazy idea when the aim is to travel to the foothills of Cadair Idris in Snowdonia National Park but there is method to my madness! The idea was to arrive around 6pm, park the car and then head up to Llyn Cau (Lake Cau) and set up the tent for a night of Wild Camping and then set off early the next morning on a circular route to the summit of Penygadair (893m) via Craig Cau and Mynydd Moel (863m) before returning to the car and heading home! So it was almost bang on 6pm that I pulled into the car park just off the A487 at Minffordd - unfortunately there is no ticket option for an overnight stay so paying £6 to the (very eccentric) owner of the campsite a few hundred yards down the road achieved the required parking spot for the night. Heading off up the very steep steps that follow the course of the Nant Cadair river from the visitor center takes you up to around 400m and the split of the paths where you fork off to th
Read more

You can't win them all - short walk to Llyn Cau at the foot of Cadair Idris

Image
You always hear it don't you, said by other people, they're the classic words of mountain wisdom: "knowing when to turn back is the most important skill" and for most people who walk, hike and climb in the hills and mountains this saying is never anything more than that - a saying or a phrase to remember just in case.   But sometimes a situation presents itself and you find yourself thinking and remembering that phrase and you realise why it really is the most important skill you can take with you into the hills. Monday 26th August 2013 From the small cottage in Snowdonia national park where we were staying for the August bank holiday weekend we headed out towards Dolgellau and car park at the foot of the Cadair Idris range just off the B4405 in the small village of Minffordd (pronounced "Min futh") which was to be the start of our walk. We'd planned a circular walk from the car park; up towards Llyn Cau ( where we've wild camped before ) vi
Read more

Winter walk on Pen-y-Fan

Image
Back again! Pen-y-Fan summit Somehow it's taken me nearly 3 months to write this walk up so, for those who were with me on the walk, please excuse any bits that I've missed and put them down to poor memory, nothing else! In preparation for a more arduous walk in the summer (a Triathlon of sorts on Ben Nevis to be precise) and as a "intro" to the mountains for Gareth, who'd be part of the Ben Nevis team and who had no real mountain walking experience, I'd planned a trip to Pen-y-Fan and a slight variation on a mountain I've walked up numerous times. The plan was to head up to Wales fairly early and start walking before 9am ideally - mainly so that we'd encounter fewer people on the hill and also to make the most of the snow that would hopefully still be on the mountain after a few days of rain and warmer weather. As mentioned earlier I'd planned a slightly different route for this walk as all of my previous walks on Pen-y-Fan have started
Read more