Half Marathon #3 of 12 - Silverstone

So we're well into March and yesterday I completed the 3rd of my 12 half marathons for the year at Silverstone race course!

A cracking race, running around the famous race track was amazing! It was a great atmosphere and bright sunshine for the whole day :) which the announcer wrongly described as "perfect conditions"!

I was trying to run a PB (sub 1:22) and at the 7 mile mark I was on track to do so, however, a lack of miles in my legs and the raised temperatures, I fell away and really felt my legs tire. Still a good time and good enough for a 72nd place out of a field of 6,350! Going to start getting back to some proper training now so that I can try to get my times down for the next couple.

Thanks to Joss for driving me down and many congrats to her for coming an amazing 2nd place in a PB time! She really deserves it! Thanks also to my mum and grandad for coming to watch and support me :) I told my dad to stay at home and watch the Leeds vs Boro game as it was on TV!

My sponsorship is up to £587.11, many thanks to everyone who has sponsored me so far. If you can spare a few hard earned pounds, please donate at my page to help me raise as much as possible for Cancer Research UK:

https://www.justgiving.com/James-Gardner-2012

My next race is in Madrid on 1 April! Speak to you then :) x

Half Marathon #2

Happy Pancake Day!

So with it being February and the 2nd month of the year, it was time for the next race in my challenge! On Sunday 19th February I ran my 2nd half marathon of the year in Brighton in a time of 1:24:06, knocking 2 minutes off my time in January which I was very happy with!

However, when I came to recording my mile splits, I noticed that the 4th and 5th miles were a lot slower than the others. So I went back onto the Brighton Half Marathon website only to discover that there was a statement saying that the race was 13.42 miles long, 0.32 longer than it should be! My adjusted time they had given to me was 1:22:05 which is new PB :) knocking 34 seconds off my previous PB! Bring on Silverstone in less than 3 weeks where I hope to go under 1:20!

Brighton was a beautiful course right along the seafront and the sun was out for the whole morning which added to it all! Glad I took the shades! I felt really good throughout the race and had a 400m, pedal to the floor, sprint finish with a guy who caught up to me at mile 12 and beat him :) last 100m I eased away, can't beat a good sprint finish!

After this race it has really got me excited about getting some full training in and I can't wait for the next few races, 2 of which are in the 6 weeks! Silverstone is now only 2 and a half weeks away and with 2 half marathons done, my sponsorship is now at £462 which is amazing for this early stage!

I am still not quite half way to my target though so if you could spare some money and sponsor me at https://www.justgiving.com/James-Gardner-2012 you can help raise money for Cancer Research UK, a brilliant charity that deserves everything you can donate.

Thanks to Jemma for letting me stay in Brighton and for supporting me at the race!

I'll speak to you all in a couple of weeks after Silverstone and hopefully another PB!

Over and out. James x

Half Marathon #1

Hello and Happy New Year!

On Monday I completed the first of my half marathons in my 2012 challenge! The race was the Central Lancashire New Year's half marathon (http://www.fyldecoastrunning.com/central-lancs.html) on 2 January 2012. It isn't one of the biggest half marathons around but it had a great local atmosphere with the 364 runners and all the friends and family that came to watch! It was very well organised and was a lovely course through the country roads north of Preston.

I ran the race in 1hour 26mins 9secs (1:26:09) and came 32nd in the field which, given that I haven't trained properly since September due to injuries and some rest time, I was extremely happy with! The weather was interesting too as we had to fight all 4 seasons during the race! It started with  temperatures near 0 degrees and through miles 2-5 there was a stiff head wind which in turn was pretty cold! Then for a mile or so there was a mixture of hail and rain, followed by the remaining 7 miles with the sun out :) so given conditions, I am extremely happy with my time! It gives me a solid platform to start training fully again to try and get my time down throughout 2012.

Thanks to Ruth who came to support me when I finished!

My next half marathon is the Brighton half marathon on Sunday 19 February 2012. If you are around the area that weekend and fancy coming to support me, I would very much appreciate your support and would be happy to see you!

You can donate via my page at www.justgiving.com/James-Gardner-2012, anything you can give would be great cheers! So far I have £115 and have set myself a target of £1,000 so please help me reach this!

Cheers :) James x