Wrexham half marathon

Race: Wrexham (Village Bakery) half marathon/North Wales Championships
Time/Position: 1:17:48 (15th from 455 [2nd V40])
There was to be no repeat of last year's drama, when some prankster decided to switch the signs at the nine mile point and thereby ruin the race for the first 40 runners. And there was no repeat of the snow-related cancellation of 2011. Instead, conditions were fairly benign today - apart, that is, from a distressing headwind from the tenth mile to the finish. After feeling reasonably comfortable at target 5:50 pace, I ended up precisely one minute slower than the time I was aiming for. Presumably, however, we were actually benefitting from a tailwind up to the 10 mile point, as I went through in 58:42, within target time and only just outside my 10 mile PB. After this I really struggled as the headwind kicked in, and the last mile was fairly unpleasant as a result: no doubt also an illustration that I hadn't trained hard enough on the longer runs. Just about managed to record a narrow PB, by half a minute, and did have the consolation of first V40 in the North Wales Championships.