Taking the Pace

One of this years running goals is to run a half marathon so I've gradually started increasing my miles. Until this week I'd managed 7.5 miles with the running club but wasn't happy with the times. When I take part in my first half marathon my aim is to complete in under 2 hours so I targeted a pace of 9 minutes per mile.

Pace is something I'm learning more about as having run relatively short distances for 12 months my focus had been just to get faster. To date my fastest mile has been 7.51 which I'm ecstatic about however, there's no way I'd maintain a pace like that over 13 miles! 

When I run alone my average pace is 8.20 per mile but when I run with the club it drops to 9.30 per mile, I think that's because there are more stops and pauses en route. Either way its becoming more difficult to work out how to pace myself for a half marathon.

That's why this weekend I set a goal to achieve 9 miles, my furthest run yet at a pace of 9 minutes per mile, somewhere in between my club and solo runs - should be achievable?

The course I chose is a regular 10K for me, normally 2 laps so I'd just have to add a third to get to 9 miles. It's at Sutton Park in Birmingham so includes some pretty steep hills which would test my pacing, it's the third lap though that would put my stamina to the test.

Thankfully I had no problems with getting past 7 miles, in fact my 8th mile was my fastest! The splits came out as follows:

Mile 1 - 8.50

Mile 2 - 8.34

Mile 3  -9.07

Mile 4 - 9.11

Mile 5 - 8.58

Mile 6 - 9.23

Mile 7 - 9.24

Mile 8 - 8.20

Mile 9 - 9.04

The best for me was my average pace which was 8.59 just what I'd set out to achieve. 

This has given me some real confidence to move up to half marathon mileage at a pace that'll see me finish in under 2 hours.