Jersey Half Marathon
On the 20th May Doug Platts ran the Jersey Half Marathon on the Isle of Jersey in the Channel Isles. Here’s how he got on…
This was Doug’s second half marathon in as many months – after completing the Hastings Marathon in April. The major difference between the two was this time, Doug had a personal best time to beat - 1hr 51mins.
The course for the Jersey half was completely different to
Unfortunately, Doug had not been able to train as much as he would have liked for this race but was still in good spirits. Doug had never been to
Anyway, back to the race! There were about 450 people running, which meant Doug managed to start right at the front. With Heinsight, this might not have been such a good idea as Doug ended up starting the race with professional and semi-professional runners who were probably aiming for about 1hr 10 - 1hr 20. As Doug’s target was to get within the 1hr 40 - 1hr 50 time, he really was in for a challenge!
The race got underway and Doug set off at a good pace, though for some reason found that the gradual incline seemed to take more out of him than the up and down hills of the Hastings half. At the half way point he had made good time, reaching 6.5miles in 51mins and looked set to beat that personal best target.
Doug says; ‘after the half way point my fitness just seemed to go and I really slowed my pace down. I managed to get some really helpful support from some of the other runners who kept me going - a big thanks to them.’
‘When we hit the 11th mile and the big drop in height, we were running along the coastline and going downhill at quite a steep angle. You had to be really careful not to go too fast as the pounding on the road could really be felt in your thighs and knees.’
‘After that the last straight was in sight and I hadn’t had a time check recently so wasn’t too sure how I was going, I knew I probably hadn’t done as well as in Hastings, but I pushed on.’
‘When I finally saw the finish-line I was just over my previous time and so, with a final sprint, I crossed the line at 1hr 53 mins. I was a little gutted that I hadn’t beaten my time but was pleased that I was still close to it. I know for next time I’m going to have to work that bit more on my fitness to beat my target of 1hr 51mins.’
If you would like to sponsor Doug for his continuing
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