To PB or not to PB, that is the question....

That was indeed the question on the lips of every runner who crossed the finish line of the Exeter Half Marathon on Sunday 10th February in a new personal best time: will my PB count? But in order to contextualise this question, we need to rewind to the night before the event and set the scene.....

It's raining. Heavily. Non-stop. All night long. The result? The far end of the Exeter Half Marathon course gets flooded and is totally impassable to runners. What to do? Well, when the organisers, Ironbridge Runner Events, woke up to be greeted by this overnight deluge on the morning of the race, they came up with a workable alternative. Instead of completing a full loop of the First Chance 10k course, they would just send runners out and back down the tarmac section only, thus missing out on the gravel track and the bit where the flood waters lurked at the end. Initial guestimations deduced that this would make the route shorter, however, to everyone's surprise, this did not prove to be the case! The total distance in fact came in at 13.25 miles: about 120-150 meters longer than the official half distance.

And so, heading out expecting the course to come in short, the main objective for the 4 Exmouth Harriers taking part shifted from setting personal best times to getting the best possible placing in the race.

Adam, Ellie, Trevor and Emma, before the start of the race

Adam Miller continued his superb vein of form, proving that he was a totally worthy recipient of the 'male athlete of the year award 2012' and building upon his list of impressive performances. Rewind 3 weeks and Adam set a massive new 10k PB on this same course and at this half marathon event he went out hard from the gun, tailing the eventual winner - Dave Tomlin of Teignbridge Trotters - and sparring with Okehampton AC runner Andy Vallance, right through to the finish. Tomlin was away and clear but right until the last of the 3 loops, it wasn't clear who would have the strength to drop the other athlete and take 2nd. But on this occasion, Adam's strength and speed won out and he dislodged Vallance from his 2nd place last year to 3rd place this year as Adam stormed to the runner up spot in a time of 76:41. This was a massive new PB for Adam, despite the course being longer, and would likely have got him close to breaking 76 minutes over an accurate distance. Hopefully this may well happen though at the Bath Half, which Adam will tackle in March.

Adam crosses the canal bridge at the end of the first loop

And finishing strongly in 2nd place overall!

Next in was myself, Ellie Sutcliffe. My current half-marathon PB was set on this course, this time last year, and so I had waited one long year for the right course and the right time to improve upon it. I felt good approaching the event and had had 3 solid weeks of quality mileage to get my fitness back to where it was before my Christmas break. If the conditions were right, I knew I could PB. I found myself running with Luke Reed from Axe Valley, who, by chance, I also found myself running with at this race last year, where he finished just 3 seconds ahead of me - out sprinting me at the finish. Today we decided to use this to our mutual advantage and we encouraged each other along all the way and kept cross-checking our pacing and times to make sure we were on track. As my Garmin read 13.1 miles, I was under the 83 minute mark, but as it was I chugged on the extra 150m to the official finish line and crossed it in 83:43: still a PB, but not the sub 83 that I would have liked and would have achieved, unfortunately. This was, however, comfortably good enough for 1st place in the female race and 9th overall.

Ellie, working with Luke of Axe Valley, who really helped me through to the finish!

Me (and my alarmingly humongous thigh muscle - is that really mine?!) at the end of lap 1

Next in, having a superb run, was Emma Dupain. On the first loop, Emma was sat in 2nd place in the female race, behind me, and looking strong. However, 2 other ladies were not too far behind her and they were also looking comfortable. On lap 2, Emma had been overtaken by one of these ladies - eventual 2nd placer, Rachel Langdon - bu was holding onto 3rd. But by the 3rd and final lap, Emma was paying for her early speed on lap 1 and just slipped into 4th place. She crossed the finish line just over a minute behind the 3rd lady, in 59th place overall and in a time of 1:40:39. Emma had a spell of injury problems around the time of the Bath Half Marathon last year and so she will have been encouraged by her performance at this race, over a longer-than-true distance, but in a time of around 5 minutes quicker.

Emma pushes on along the quay side on the start of lap 2

And still looking strong at the finish: 4th lady!

Last but by no means least, the 4th Harrier taking part was Trevor Cope. Trevor has a real soft spot for half marathons and this event was his 251st half, can you believe it?! To put it into perspective, that's 3288 miles run in half marathon races alone, not including the training miles for them! Trevor was a bit worried at the start that if the course was shorter than the true distance, then this one wouldn't count towards his total, but as it was he had nothing to worry about as he got his 13.1... and more besides! Trevor ran 2:26:56 for 209th place overall.

Out of the 300 places sold, only 217 completed on the day: perhaps the other 83 took a look out of their windows, saw the weather, and decided to stay in bed?! So very well done to those of us who braved the conditions, and also well done to the supporters who stood out cheering us on in it - reckon you had the harder task!!

So, according to the Power of 10, no official PB for Adam and me, but at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that we did nail personal best times... and also, if our Garmins say so, then it must be true!!