The Event
The Vantaa Half Marathon is organised every year and this year it was taking place for the 17th time. The event starts at Tikkurila Sports Park, just north of Helsinki, and the route comprises of a 10,55 km circuit. Therefore, the half marathon event goes around this route twice.
This event is popular in Finland because of its flat course with good potential for running personal best times.
This year's event was held on Sunday 10th October 2010
My Event
And so, on to my last half marathon event of 2010!
I was especially looking forward to this event as I had been told the route was quite flat and was a good opportunity for personal best times. My target for this race was to try and knock another minute off my personal best, so 1:38 it was!
On the day of the event, Autumn had well and truly arrived. Different coloured leaves were falling from the trees and scattering on the ground. There was a stronger wind today, the temperature was very cool, and there was a light drizzly rain to start with.
The route comprised of two laps to complete the course. Again, I was joined by Tuukka and we met at the race office after collection of our numbers.
The start time was scheduled for 2.15pm and I managed to get a place right near the front of the start line. I was pleased to hear the gun go off as it was beginning to get quite cold waiting on the start line. However, it was not long before I began to warm up as the start of the race progressed. The first few kilometres were completed very quickly and as the race progressed, I hoped to keep up with the early fast pace that I had set. I felt good today and the rapid pace I was setting felt fairly comfortable. With half the race completed, I was looking at a possibility of another personal best!
I was expecting my body to start feeling it as I started the second lap of the course but instead it seemed comfortable. I had settled into a consistent fast pace and was using a couple of other runners to keep this pace going. As the finish approached, I could see that, barring disaster, I was on to easily beat my personal best time. Inevitably, the last 2 or 3 kilometres (1-2 miles) were a bit of a slog, but I kept a good pace. I crossed the line and was very pleased with my time of 1:36:57.
So, my last half marathon of the year drew to a close and I went out on a high with another personal best time - knocking 2 minutes and 7 seconds off my previous best time! This did surprise me a little as I didn't expect to beat it by so much! The course was nice and flat compared to the last two half marathons I had done so this probably went some way to helping me!
Results
My final time of 1:36:57 put me in 115th place out of the 675 finishers. A full round up of the results can be found here