It’s taken a while to get this blog together due to a busy and eventful couple of weeks, but here we are!
I booked the race and hotel a year ago with the plan to make a weekend of it. I’d decided after Amsterdam that I needed to take a year off marathoning and have a rethink; the idea was that I’d spend 2026 doing half marathons and improve my time in that distance, then over winter 2026/27 I would move back up the distances towards a full marathon, starting with Chester Metric. I thought it would be a nice ‘race weekend’ away without having to do a full marathon.
So far I have sort of stuck to the plan! Except that I haven’t managed to improve my half marathon time in the slightest. My PB remains 1:55:22, set at the GNR in 2024 (not an optimal day and I still feel I was capable of closer to 1:50 at that time but for various reasons I didn’t push for it). I ran four halves this year and only managed a sub-2 once. It’s been a tough year with a lot of injuries and disruptions and I’ve just not been able to get back to where I was in 2024.
After Amsterdam I said I wouldn’t sign up to another marathon again until I could (a) run 1:50 in the half and (b) hold marathon pace in the metric. I definitely didn’t manage the first this year. Could I manage the second?
In the lead-up I was thinking ‘absolutely not’. I was struggling a lot with fatigue, couldn’t hold pace at parkrun, and was dealing with an annoying bit of tendon inflammation in my foot. I was nervous it would be a total disaster, but went in with a ‘let’s see what happens’ approach.
Chester is a lovely course and a really well organised event! I set off at what felt like race effort, but tried not to look at my watch too much – just focused on one mile at a time and on my nutrition schedule. I had audiobooks ready on my headphones for if I needed them, but found I didn’t. It felt like the turnaround took forever to appear, but in general the race felt like it went by nice and quickly, and I was able to stay fairly steady and strong. I spotted someone I knew from online shortly after the turnaround, which was a nice boost! I do like out-and-backs as I find it a good distraction to watch how other runners are getting on, even if I don’t know anyone to look out for.
It wasn’t long before I was counting down the last few miles (I did like the ‘you’ve done a half, just a parkrun to go!’ sign). There’s a pretty tough hill on the penultimate mile, but I knew it wasn’t long to go so I just kept pushing. The crowds along the final stretch next to the river were incredible, but I often find that kind of noise a bit overwhelming so I just concentrated on getting to the end.
I finished in 2:36:16, which is not quite goal marathon pace for my long-term sub-4 ambition, but I’m still very happy with it. I’ve decided I will race a full marathon in the spring, but perhaps aim for 4:05 or 4:10 instead, then spend another year building on that.
It’s just nice to feel happy about a race result (which has not happened often this year!). Just a couple of shorter low-pressure ones to go, and then I can look forward to (hopefully) a better year in 2027.