Like the recent Watford Half, having reviewed Brighton this time last year, I won’t go over too much old ground and keep this fairly brief!

Having been unable to shake off the cold I got around the time of Watford, I wasn’t expecting great things from Brighton this year. It had left me feeling drained of energy and prone to dizzy spells when bending down (a result of my head being full of congestion) so the plan was to go out and enjoy what has always been one of my favourite races of the year.

Post-2017, the organisers unfortunately discovered that the course was around 100 yards short, which meant that the times were voided for competitive purposes and not officially ratified. I had actually run a PB in that race, so was naturally disappointed, frustrated and angry, but all the more determined to improve on that time in 2018.

Aside from the fairly strong 16 mph wind, conditions were very good for winter racing – clear blue skies, bright sunshine and a cool, crisp 0 degrees temperature on the start line at 9am. Whilst this made the minutes leading up to the start very uncomfortable for the runners bouncing up and down to try and keep warm in the colour-coded pens (an extra later and gloves were the order of the day!) I knew that I’d be more than sufficiently warmed-up after a couple of miles once the blood started pumping quickly round my body.

There were plenty of toilet cubicles and male urinals within the race village and along the seafront which meant that the queues were relatively short compared to many other races I’ve participated in. Like in previously years, the village was alive with music, small expo marquees and plenty of marshals and officials available to help and direct the runners prior to the start of the race.

The headline sponsor was The Grand Hotel this year, replacing Vitality, who had been involved previously for a number of years. This made no difference to the organisation and logistics, apart from the course orientation. Whilst the footprint itself was identical, the first half of the race was in reverse to previous years, which meant taking a sharp right at the start and running on the right hand side of the road up to Ovingdean rather than running a loop of Steine Gardens in the town itself, which instead, came at around 6 miles rather than the first mile. This didn’t make any difference to the race itself other than alleviating the bottle-necking in mile one which has happened in the past. I believe the intention was also to aid the wheelchair participants. There were around 8,000 participants in the main race, and the organisers hope to increase numbers if the new layout proved to be a success.

I met up with some running pals before the race and the plan was for one of the guys to ‘pace’ us at around 7.50 min/miles with the intention of achieving a sub 1.43 finish times. Given that the course is flat, the wind was the only factor that could derail the strategy!

We started strongly and despite negotiating a slight incline and a fierce head wind, ran 7.44, 7.38, 7.40 and 7.25 for the first 4 miles! I was seriously worried when we then proceeded to post a 7.30-something at 5 miles, as I was well outside of my comfort zone and fearing the worst. If we carried on at this pace I’d be dead on my feet by the halfway point, and from experience, there’s nothing more soul-destroying that limping through the back-end of a race in all sorts of bother! Despite feedback from other runners post-race, I found the course largely congestion-free (although it might have been busier coming out of the pens behind us) and the first 5 miles flew by fairly unassumingly. As we approached the town/Grand Pier again at around 6 miles, the crowds had swollen in size and were really supportive and vocal (fair play for so many bearing those freezing conditions, as it must have been incredibly uncomfortable standing still all morning!). I definitely felt rejuvenated at this point and an energy gel gave me a much needed boosted as we rounded the gardens and headed back onto the seafront again.

The next 3 miles (passing The Grand Hotel, BA 360i tower and Hove lawns and lagoon) were aided by a slight tailwind and continued to be run at 7.40-something pace. There were three of us running together with our ‘pacemaker’ keeping the pace fairly even and giving us words of encouragement as we headed towards Shoreham. I started to get a stitch at around 8 miles and just focused on getting to 10 miles where we would turn back onto the promenade for the ‘parkrun’ home!

At this point, my running buddy decided to make a move (which I knew he had been planning) as he is a stronger runner than me and was eyeing up a sub 1.40. The wind was brutal for the last 3 miles and I began to really struggle with the stitch and achy legs! My pacer was absolutely tremendous and continually encouraged me and gave me breathing advice to try and help ease the stitch. Miles 11 and 12 were the slowest of the race (7.58 and 8.05), but I knew that if I could hang in there, I’d give it everything in the last mile as adrenalin would override the discomfort I was in. The crowds were huge and everyone was cheering and shouting words of encouragement going into the final mile, and with the Grand Pier clearly in sight, I went for it. Whilst I had no idea what sort of time I would achieve (since we’d run much quicker than I’d anticipated, I couldn’t do the maths in my head to calculate a rough finish time), I thought it would be quicker than my Stroud Half PB that I’d run last October. As we crossed the line I was amazed to see that I’d finished in 1.41.47, which was beyond my wildest dreams! The last mile split was 7.38, which effectively helped to get me home in under 1.42 and beat my PB by over a minute and a half!

Full credit has to go to my ‘personal pacemaker’ who I told mid-race (as I was seriously struggling for breath) that he was the worst pacer ever and had made me run too fast! Of course he did an amazing job and I truly wouldn’t have got anywhere near that time if it hadn’t been for his help and encouragement throughout the race.

The journey back to Gloucestershire took over four and a half hours, but even that couldn’t ruin my day after running a time I never thought was possible! Once again, the people of Brighton put on an amazing half marathon which will entice me back again many more times in the future!