In all honesty not one of my greatest performances, in fact the slowest time I have recorded for a competitive half marathon run, nevertheless still a race worth competing in.
During my running career this was half marathon number 13 and the 4th time I have set off from Telford Town Park to follow the route of this race billed as multi terrain and as wet as I have experienced with large water-filled potholes seemingly everywhere and a surprising amount of mud on the short off road sections, the overall route very much as described in my reports from previous years.
With Martin, a past devotee being unable to participate this time as he was in his final preparations for his first London Marathon, I wish him well with that, I was joined on the start line by Neil T. who was starting his first Ironbridge Half, full of expectation and energy and hopefully better prepared than I was.
The early stages went reasonably well as I managed to keep Neil in site but soon enough he started to pull away, but as sometimes happens I catch up again in the later stages, this time however I slowed towards the end and really struggled over the last couple of miles with a recent weakness in my left hamstring really beginning to have an effect, resulting in a finishing time of 1:54:44, over 7 minutes slower than my times for 2012 and 2013. My finishing position was 283rd whilst Neil finished 182nd in 1:48:53.
To end on a positive note there were almost 400 finishers behind me and the last finisher took an hour longer than I did!
There are full results, if you need them, on Stuweb.co.uk via the Telford Harriers website.
Chances are I will probably be back for more next year!