Race report: 2013 Burnham Beeches Half Marathon

I ran this last Sunday in 1:37:11 (7:25 pace). That's my slowest half marathon ever (of four) so my time was not remarkable, but considering the circumstances I'm pleased with how it went. I'd only run five miles total in the 17 days leading up to this event (most of which were spent on vacation in America) because my right knee had been aching. About a week before the race it was still hurting persistently enough to where I thought I might not be able to run at all. But my knee felt fine on the day.

I made the conservative choice to run in the relatively cushy New Balance MT101's. Compared to the ultra minimalist Mizuno Wave Universes that I had been training exclusively in leading up to the injury, these are well-padded. I'll be more careful about using the Mizunos for all/long runs in the future. In America I got some new black Nike Free 3's (v. 5) which so far I like a lot, so they will be my main shoes leading up to the Abingdon Marathon in two months, instead of the Mizunos.

Anyway back to the race. It was great and I'd do it again. Well-organized and a beautiful wooded course on paved roads. I guess they won't be posting/selling photos from it (and my wife wasn't there to take any because she remains in America), so I'll just post a picture of the medal.

One concern about Abingdon is I've gained about ten pounds over the past five weeks. I'd been losing weight and was down to 150 in mid-July, but then I spent three of the next four weeks fattening up in America (Miami and NC/VA/TN/MD). To top it off, since arriving back in the UK and living bachelor style for the past week, I've been eating pretty hedonistically, and this morning I weighed in at 160. Need to try and get back down to 150 over the next eight weeks.