North York Moors AC results
82 1:21:57 Richard Fawcett 1:21:52 PB
89 1:22:27 Andrew Dobson 1:22:19 PB
94 1:22:39 Paul McGough 1:22:30 PB
187 1:27:45 Paul Gamble 1:27:39 PB
344 1:33:36 Tom Wall 1:32:51 PB
382 1:34:35 Sam Healy 1:33:53 PB
493 1:38:21 Martin Luxton 1:38:10 SB
Race Report by Paul McGough
The weather forecasters got it wrong saying it was going to be dry in York ready for the start of the brass Monkey half marathon. Travelling down the A19 with Tom and Richard the rain just wasn’t letting up and continued well into the race. It still didn’t put off the masses as they assemble ready for the 10am start. After a few announcements to keep us cold and shivering we were off.
My intention for the race was to go at approx. 6:30 pace for the first half and then see what happened for the second half of the race. Talking to Andrew Dobson on the start line he was intending to go a little faster than me at approx. 6:20 pace and I knew Richard would be more than capable of going at that pace too.
The gun went and I settled into a nice pace a little faster than I intended just behind Andrew. All felt well though so I just continued with it. We slowly caught Richard and Gary Dack (Billingham) at 3 miles and between us we worked well together along with a couple of others.
At 5 miles I did wonder if I was going too fast and if I would pay for it towards the end of the race but as I wasn’t looking at my mile splits I was happy with the pace that was being set by Andrew Dobson. Andrew would drag me to the next group of runners but instead of sitting in with them he would go round them and push on. Chasing Andrew down all the way round the half marathon was what made it a great run for me.
At the half way point the rain had eventually stopped and it was Richard that made a move to up the pace and very slowly moved away from us. This split the group with Andrew giving chase first and then Gary and I giving chase too. I ran with Gary for a mile or so before deciding to try to catch Andrew who was about 30 yards ahead of me. Richard was slowly moving away from us. I slowly but surely closed the gap on Andrew and I was reunited with him once more at 8 miles and we ran together for the next 4 miles. It was at the first road bridge you go over that Andrew was able to gap me and I couldn’t close it after that. For the last mile I just ran as fast as I could knowing that I was running close to a PB time.
The finish caught me out as the race started further down the road as it had in previous years so the finish was further into the race course than usual too. When you feel you are running strongly though you just keep going and it was all worth it as Gary Dack finished only a few seconds behind me. Gary’s in great form and comfortable beat me at Leeds Abbey Dash 10K so it was good to finish before him and it showed I was hitting some really good form too.
I’m not sure how much I took off my PB as I have raced a few half marathons on other people’s numbers but it’s very pleasing to get a PB after not getting one in 2013.
Richard ran well to PB and Tom Wall knocked a massive 15 minutes off his PB. It was pleasing that all 3 of us travelled back home together with PBs.
I can see why people will cancel going to a Saturday morning parkrun to instead enter this race as it’s a flat course and if the wind is only light then it has massive PB potential.
Well done to all the other nymac runners, 6 out of 7 PBs isn’t bad at all.