{"id":354,"date":"2015-06-30T19:50:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T18:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rungigettorun.com\/?p=354"},"modified":"2015-06-30T19:50:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T18:50:00","slug":"richmond-park-half-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/luigifumero.com\/run\/2015\/06\/30\/richmond-park-half-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Richmond Park Half Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was time to put my speed training to the test. After the NDW50 I stopped doing 100k+ weeks and concentrated on speed work. To check if it all worked out I was going to run the Richmond Park Half Marathon organised by RunThrough<\/a>. They are the same cool guys that organised the Wimbledon Common Half I’ve ran last summer and really enjoyed. So I was sure it was going to be a small event like I prefer, but well organised. By the way, I will run the Wimbledon one again next month.<\/p>\n

In the week leading to the race I took it easy:<\/p>\n

Tuesday I ran\u00a012km at 4:48\/km<\/a>\u00a0on very tired legs.
\nThursday I felt a lot better after a day rest and ran 15km at 4:28\/km<\/a>\u00a0and on\u00a0Friday I did an easy 10km at 4:44\/km<\/a>. On\u00a0Saturday I rested and ate a lot of pasta.<\/p>\n

So race day arrived. I was quite thrilled, I had not run an half marathon since last November and I was really looking forward to it especially as it was taking place basically in my backyard. I have run in Richmond Park so much that I was quite curious to see how it would feel to actually race in it.<\/p>\n

The day started very sunny and hot and I cycled to the race start. When I got there there were already quite a lot of runners basking in the sun lying in the grass waiting for the start.<\/p>\n

The race was made up of 4 laps. I do not usually like races with laps, but I found out it has its advantages.<\/p>\n

The sun was shining and the day was hot when we started. The first part of each lap was uphill, gently, but still uphill, on a large gravel path for a couple of km, then at the top of the hill near Richmond Gate it turned left on pavement going mostly downhill and then the final bit was on a grassy, very uneven path.<\/p>\n

The plan was to run around 4:00\/4:10 m\/km for the first 3 laps and then accelerate in the last one. As usual the plan was forgotten straight away.<\/p>\n

The first lap I kept a pace just below 4:00 except for the final grassy\/sandy last km that I found super hard on the legs. In\u00a0the second lap I really found it hard going uphill again. It was also very hot. Every lap I would take a small bottle of water and by the end of the lap I would have drunk half of it and splashed the other half on my head. I have become too used to British weather, when I’ll run in Italy this summer I will melt.<\/p>\n

The cool thing about it being a laps race was that I could adapt my pace to what was coming and my strategy became: do what you can uphill and then bomb it downhill. So I alternated slower kms at 4:21 going up with well below 4:00 m\/km in the downhill bits.<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed it as it became a real race between me and a couple of other people. I ran a lot of km with a guy and we were pushing each other quite a bit. I had to run faster than 3:40 for a couple of km to be sure he would not catch up with me. I am sure he could feel we were fighting too, and I enjoy that, especially as I finished faster then him. After the first lap I also learnt where it was better to run on the grassy final bit (avoid the central sandy part!) and it became much easier.<\/p>\n

After the second lap we started lapping a lot of people so I could not really guess in which position I was. I started the race hoping I would finish in the top 15 so I was pretty happy when I\u00a0crossed the finish line and heard the speaker say I was 10th. Even happier when the official results showed I was 9th! It\u00a0is always good to finish in the top 10, I love it.\u00a0\"richmondhalf\"<\/p>\n

I was not expecting to do a PB as it was not a flat race so I was not too surprised by not even finishing with an average below 4:00 m\/km, but I am very happy with the final result and the “racing” feeling I felt. You know when the legs go faster than you expect and they feel like they know what\u00a0they are doing, you feel good. I could have pushed a bit more uphill in the second and third lap. Easy to say now!<\/p>\n

Overall a very good fun race, very well organised and as always Richmond Park was amazing.<\/p>\n

If you are interested you can see my\u00a0Strava of the race here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I cycled back home and had a massive barbecue with friends. Unfortunately all the sun that made me sweat the first 2 laps was gone and it was actually raining. Not ideal for\u00a0cooking sausages, but I really enjoyed the company and the cold beer.<\/p>\n

See you on the trails!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was time to put my speed training to the test. After the NDW50 I stopped doing 100k+ weeks and concentrated on speed work. To check if it all worked out I was going to run the Richmond Park Half Marathon organised by RunThrough. They are the same cool guys that organised the Wimbledon Common […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,47,49],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-half","tag-race","tag-richmond-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/luigifumero.com\/run\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/luigifumero.com\/run\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/luigifumero.com\/run\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luigifumero.com\/run\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luigifumero.com\/run\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/luigifumero.com\/run\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/luigifumero.com\/run\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luigifumero.com\/run\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luigifumero.com\/run\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}