Alloa half marathon

A fantastic turnout of 2,327 runners started the 34^th Alloa half marathon on Sunday last no doubt encouraged by the best weather of the year so far.

Ian Rae and myself were certainly in a sunny mood driving to the Wee County that morning, sunglasses on and  car sunvisors pulled down. After a brief stop at McDonalds we were in the town itself where Ian, having got it into his head there would only be around 400 runners, was more than a little surprised to see the sheer volume of traffic for a Sunday morning. After a fruitless fifteen minutes trying to find a parking spot we eventually left my car in the Asda car park, meaning to buy something from the shop later. As things turned out we never did although Ian did leave a small deposit there prior to the race!  

We had some pre-race chit-chat with former clubmates Graham Lindsay and David Wardrope and then it was handshakes all round and we were off. I watched the others as they gradually pulled away then exchanged brief words with John McBride, Joey Shields and Julie Beveridge (not sure she heard my words of encouragement, so in the zone was she) as they in turn trotted into the distance. Never mind, someone has to make the rest of the club look good.

For my part I ran carefully for the first three miles or so, aware of both the 33 miles in my legs from last weekend and a 14 mile WHW recce with Ruth just 2 days before – probably not the best form of half marathon preparation. Mentally bracing myself I patiently did not respond to the steady stream of runners coming past me but by the village of Fishcross felt able to pick up the pace from the start of a series of downhill stretches leading to Tillicoultry.
   

Although quite a benign day weather-wise there was still a breeze which, as always, was in the runners faces as we negotiated the four-mile long straight through the hillfoot villages of Tillicoultry, Alva and Menstrie. I noticed a distinct drop of pace around me as we finally neared the turn off the A91 and realised my fellow runners were subconciously saving some energy for the assault up the infamous Menstrie Brae. Having run this race many times before I knew from personal experience that the following, more gradual, drag into Tullibody was the more taxing so started to overtake a few at this point.

Feeling stronger as the race went on I continued to pass runners all the way up both hills and all the way to the line only to be re-passed by a couple of twenty-somethings in the finishing straight. Remembering a day when I used to have that much energy I was more than happy to let them go but was pleasantly surprised to see the finishing line gantry show 1.53 something as I passed underneath. Having stated before the race that I would be more than happy to come home in under two hours this was an excellent result and perhaps points to a recent improvement in endurance, a timely boost with two short-ish ultras coming over the next three weeks and the Fling another three weeks later.
Big John must have given his all as he completely forgot to collect his finisher's medal, possibly distracted by wondering what colour the t-shirt would be after 2015's shocking pink effort. (a very conservative black on white, since you asked) 

Ian, Graham and I met up up beyond the line briefly where Ian offered us both some post-race sustenance of Midget Gems.

There were 2,298 finishers (only 29 DNFs, unfortunately Julie would appear to be one of them)

Results;

Joe Shields                          1.36.08

Julie Beveridge                    1.36.14
Ian Rae                               1.36.34

John McBride                     1.49.36

David Searil                        1.53.12

Julie Beveridge                    DNF (not confirmed but provisional results show this)

Stop Press - Julie has been in touch to say she did indeed finish, somewhere around 1.36.10, but her chip didn't work. It has been reported to the organisers and she is awaiting an update from them. Delighted to hear it Julie! A tense wait now to find out the identity of the leading harrier, Julie or Joe. Watch this space...

Thursday 24th March, a further update - Julie's chip time has now been confirmed as 1.36.14 some six seconds behind Joe. Their gun times are eleven seconds apart, also in Joe's favour.  The first three harriers were thus seperated by only 26 seconds on chip timing and by 35 seconds on the gun, an extremely close result over 13.1 miles. 

Some other results;

Louise Beveridge                 1.29.27

David Wardrope                  1.40.09

Graham Lindsay                   1.44.11

Laura do Nascimento           2.03.15