50th Half Marathon

I used to think half marathons where pretty pointless.  For me, 13.1 miles is the hardest distance to run, you still have to do most of the prep you need for a marathon with gels etc and it doesn’t count towards the 100 marathons.  To be completely honest I wouldn’t have even started counting how many I’d done if there wasn’t medals involved.

Image owned by Mega Marathoners

The very awesome Travis from Saxon, Viking & Norman Races brought us Mega Marathoners which is an amazing social group that allows you to recongnise your acheivements on your way to the 100 marathons  They also do recognition for half marathons and ultras which is how I ended up keeping count of my half marathons.  I’m currently at 49 so Liverpool Rock n Roll half on Sunday will be my 50th.

I like facts so I thought I’d look at my half marathon stats and see how it compares if I ever reach the 100.  So here goes:

• My first half marathon was on 19/01/2014, four years and four months ago.

• My fastest half is one of my least favourite courses, English Half Marathon in 1:55:36

• My slowest half is one of my favourites, a whopping 3:42:03 as Walt Disney World.  It included a theme park ride!!

• My top three halfs are Disneyland Paris Half, Liverpool Rock n Roll and Essar Four Villages (aka Hillsby)

• I’ve paced the half marathon in three hours twice, at both Dublin and Liverpool Rock n Roll Halfs.

• Four races are actually longer than the 13.1 miles but still count towards the total: Chester Metric, Ashby 20, Trimpell 20 and the 25.4 mile failure that is Las Vegas marathon (least it counts for something).