Race report: 2014 Wycombe Half Marathon

Ran this for the fourth time last Sunday and enjoyed it as usual. Both kids did the fun run. My official time (1:37:12) was my slowest ever, one second slower than Burnham Beeches last summer. (However Wycombe's chip timing is only used to record finish time, not start time, so I can console myself in knowing that 1:37:12 is actually my gun time and a few seconds slower than my net time).

I really like this race. When I ran it for the first time five years ago, it was my first race after getting back into running and after moving to England. It was a good experience then and continues to be. It's simple and well-organized, the medal this year was nice and better than previous years, and the t-shirt and goody bag were again very good. Also, kids' fun run medal was excellent and higher quality than in previous years. The big hill at the very beginning is tough but you make up for it with an equally steep downhill portion later. And once you're over that hill, the rest seems relatively easy.

Am I concerned that my time was kind of slow? Am I definitely slowing with age? I don't know. I do wonder if I can ever get back to sub-3:15 marathon form at this rate. However, I don't treat half-marathons like races as much as I used to, I treat them more as training runs. I ran 20 miles on the Sunday before this race and I hardly tapered at all. So maybe I'm doing fine. I'm keeping my mileage up and avoiding injury, and my performance was OK, so maybe I actually am on track to get back up to speed for the marathon. Wait and see. Next up is the Burnham Beeches Half, which I'll sign up for today.