After Morocco, I’d taken a week off training, mainly due to the volume of work I came back to. This actually suited me really well, my legs had a decent rest and I found time to go buy some new trainers after some gait analysis at the fantastic Leicester Running Shop.

The gap also gave me time to look at my training properly; to make sure time I spend really will help with what’s ahead. So I’ve changed one of my short runs mid-week to include sprints of around 50m/100m every half kilometre to get me completely out of breath and encourage me to recover whilst exercising (should help deal with altitude), committed myself to more cycling at the gym (yes, I’ll be going to spinning classes…) and started to regularly include weights. To help with overall strength and technique I’ve also added climbing to the mix.

So feeling pleased with preparation (on paper) I went out over a week before the race to do my first run in the new trainers. (Un)Surprisingly it felt really odd given the different shape of the shoe on my foot, so I came back feet aching and a little concerned after just 5km. My response… run 12km the next morning… and get blisters doing it, doh! But I felt better for it, the distance wasn’t a problem and the aching was better (and quite bearable). Convincing myself that the blisters were down to the absolutely battered skin on my instep I’ve picked up running in my old trainers, and I was happy enough to be running the 21km of the Belvoir Half Marathon in my new trainers the weekend after.

Waking up on the 12th, after a pretty restless night, I felt pretty sick, which given I’d been genuinely looking forward to the race was a concern, as it definitely wasn’t nerves. Again I managed to put it to the back of my mind, thinking it’d soon clear up once I was at the race and was fully focussed.

Arriving after a 20minute drive, the race felt quite different to others. It was fairly small (600-700 runners) and also the first time I’d gone to run a race on my own. So with it still quite cold outside, I sat in the warm car with music on until 15mins before, walked over the village hall where I dropped off my car keys, went out into the cold and warmed up for 5mins.

The pack was split at the start, so I decided to hang around the back of the group hoping for times under 1hr 55min to get off quickly. The start was a bit of a mess, with me on the side trying to avoid crush in the centre I had to jump over wire at the start line (that was recording chips, I was worried it hadn’t got me!) to get through. After a short run over grass we were turning right out onto the road and back into Hose to start the race properly.

Aiming to beat my previous best of 2hrs 5mins I’d aimed for miles to take 9mins 15secs (which would give me a total time of just over 2hrs) and then see how I felt for the final few miles to see if I could come in just under.

The first mile felt fine, checking my timer I was running at around 8mins 30secs a mile too which was great as it gave me leeway later on in the race. Feeling okay I decided to keep the pace up, knowing I’d probably tire a little and slow down naturally as the race wore on.

After the one of the two club runners I’d been following dove to the side to throw up and I was passed by a guy pushing a bloke in a wheelchair (massive respect to him!) I was at the first water stop, that as I’d once again decided to carry a drink with me I could keep going past and overtake plenty of people (always a good feeling!).

Shortly after the first stop, my right calf became really tight, forcing me to slow the pace and try to let it sort itself out, it helped but only enough that I could build back up to the faster pace without it becoming too painful. It wasn’t the pain of Brighton (bleeding feet…) but it did hurt and I was worried just how much damage I was doing by carrying on with over half the race and around an hour of running ahead of me.

At 7miles we hit the only real steep section of the route, a 20 metre or so steep climb that whilst I was never in danger of stopping on, took my breath away for a good 30secs after. By this point though I was well aware that a sub 2hr time was possible if I could keep my pace up.

The last few miles seemed to fly by, I guess because I knew I was on for a good time but also because I was running slightly faster than I was comfortable with a group of runners, which seemed to work well for everyone. Going past 12 miles at just short of 1:49mins I knew it was a certainty to come in under 2hrs, so I picked up the pace as much as possible and ran as hard as I could. I came around the final corner into gravel car park (daft if you ask me!) at such a pace I nearly fell turning, but I held it together to cross the line in 1hr 57mins 25seconds, almost 8mins faster than my previous time. I was over the moon and then soon unable to walk much due to my right calf tightening up and the new shoes taking their toll on the underside of my feet (not really blistered, just aching from the different shape).