NSPCC Milton Keynes

As you know Up and Running is committed to not only provide excellent service and product  for the running community but to involve the running community in many of its decisions.  Be it through feedback on product, service and/or contribution to the many social sites employed by the company (Facebook, Twitter etc).  The piece below is no exception.  It is from U&R Twitter follower Paul Malpass and it is his review of his first Half Marathon.  The Milton Keynes Half.  Enjoy.

My First Half Marathon - NSPCC Milton Keynes 

Having run a few 10k's now and broken the 1 hour mark I thought I would try and run a half marathon. I chose the NSPCC Half in Milton Keynes. My daughter ran this last year and it looked a nice fun run.

We arrived at 09:00, plenty of parking and just a 5 minute walk to the start which was at 10:00. The weather was perfect for me. 15 degrees with a threat of rain.  The main problem then being the 200meter queue for the toilets! 

The dedicated few took part in the warm up while we connected up our Garmins and iPhones. I find the music takes my mind off the effort of running ;-) Being first timers we lined up with the sub 3 hour marker. It wasn’t long and we were off. There were 1285 starters and so it was a gentle walk to the line before we set off at a gentle pace. The first 500 yards was along a housing estate road but then we turned onto pathway’s. This was quite crowded and until 3 miles it was a little bit challenging for us less experienced runners. I would have liked another mile of running on a road for space. I was trying not to go too fast but I was consistently under 10 minute miles for the first 5 miles. By about 6 miles the first shower came and I was feeling pretty good still, managing 10 minute miles. But by mile 9 my quads were cramping and it began to get tough. Another shower and it was mile 11. I was having to walk A few yards every half mile and it was sheer will power and crowd support pushing me on now. With a mile to go my daughter appeared to jog home with me. She couldn't run due to injury and so was there to take the pictures. The last 500 yards was very hard but I was determined to finish running and managed 2:18:23. Not bad for a first half marathon at age 51.

Overall it was a well organised race, I think it is in its 13th year after all! The only criticism would be the narrow path at the beginning. There is a small uphill part at the end and a few up and downs around the course but would still be classed as flat.

So will I do another one... well I survived with no real injuries but it was a struggle. I'll reserve judgement until i've run some more 10k's ;-) 

Author: Paul Malpass