Run > Race

Crisis Square Mile Run 2013

This is about the fourth race I have entered with work, and I have been unable to run any before because I have always been injured by the time the race comes around. Therefore, when I came down with a cold that got worse over the course of the week I thought I might be destined never to run with work! In the end I manned up however and decided to run despite my cold, which I think had started to get better by the time of the race.

First thing to mention is the distance. I have heard before that the race is always longer than advertised, so I treated the comment on the website that the race was "just over 3.75 miles" with a degree of scepticism! In fact the race came out at 4.31 miles by my Garmin! That may not be 100% accurate as there were a couple of tunnels / underpasses, and the high buildings around City. However, I went on Mapmyrun afterwards and recreated the route as best I could (which I think was 95% accurate, which gave 4.2 miles, so 3.75 miles was clearly wrong. Once the official results came through there was a "pace" column which showed the distance to be 7km (4.34 miles), but that was never made explicit anywhere! As 7km appeared to be a vaguely official distance and tied-up with my Garmin I decided to use that to log the results!

The race started and immediately after crossing the start line there was a delay of about 15 seconds while runners started ahead of us! For the first half a mile or so there was only one possible pace which was the pace of everyone around you! There was a further delay queueing to go down the stairs down the millenium bridge. At that point I decided not to look at my virtual partner or to worry about time but just to run it on feel. The crowds eventually thinned out a bit and I was able to run at a decent pace. Passed a guy holding the 2 miles sign in 15:10(!) but I'm not sure he was necessarily in the right place! Got to 3.20 miles on my watch and thought, only half a mile to go! Then passed the three mile sign! In fact I was still going as the watch distance passed 3.75 miles then 4 miles then 4.25 miles!!

Last few minutes were very tough and I was definitely flagging. As you aproach the Millenium Bridge you can see Southwalk Bridge (which you have to cross before recrossing via the Millenium Bridge) further up the river and it looks like there is still quite a distance to go! I managed a mini-sprint finish accross the second half of the millenium brige to finish. My watch time was 34:20, but I think I must have started it before the offical start line (which i didn't see), because my chip time was 34:01. That is plausible because just after starting my watch I had to stand there without moving for 15-20 seconds as people ahead started running. Finishing position was 335 of 1346 and according to the results website an estimate of my VO2 Max was 40.4. Looking that up it puts me in the "Normal" category!

I would definitely do this run again as it is great to see all of the landmarks to have the opportunity to run in places where you would not normally do so. However it is definitly not a course to go for a PB given the crowding at the start (and the uncertain total distance)!

Mile times (to be taken with a pinch of salt given the underpasses, etc...)
8:10, 157
7:40, 171
8:19, 174
7:36, 180
(8:28, 188)