I was happy with this race given the last couple of months.

The aim of this one was always to see where I was after a winter of non-specific baseline training, as my main aim for 2026 is to make big improvements in my half marathon time. What I didn’t expect was that I wouldn’t really have that winter of baseline training, as I had to reduce my mileage drastically in January and February in order to sort out a hamstring/glute niggle. As such, while I might have expected to scrape a sub-2 on normal mileage, I thought this week that I would probably end up somewhere between 2:05 and 2:10 – and that was pretty much bang on. Due to the lack of training I knew I had to stick to a steady effort with no heroics, so I’m really pleased with how the race went.

I felt at the start like I didn’t know anyone (Middlesbrough is a bit further south than I usually venture for ‘local’ races) but it was nice to spot a few people I knew during the race and say hi.

The last few miles were a bit tough, but that’s to be expected given that I’ve not run more than 10 miles at a time since Amsterdam Marathon in October!

The hamstring twinged on occasion, but 99% of the time I didn’t notice it. Hopefully it’ll be manageable from now on.

I also didn’t feel sick 🎉🎉🎉 I was a bit crampy on occasion but no nausea. My start line gel was Active Root non-caffeinated gel mix (which did give me the usual annoying gassy aftertaste for the whole race so I’ll try something different next time) and my in-race fuel was Tailwind (which worked great, but I need to drink more of it per fuel point as I still had some left at the end).

The course is very much recommended. It’s nice and flat other than some minor flyover inclines around the halfway point. There’s not a massive amount of crowd support, but it’s great when it’s there. There’s a mile 12 out-and-back with a very similar vibe to the mile 12 out-and-back at the Edinburgh half (i.e. when the HELL is this thing going to have a turning point?), but in general I’m a fan of out-and-backs as you can concentrate on looking out for people.

The only slight issue was that all the mile markers from 5 to 12 seemed to be slightly early, each appearing about 0.2 miles before they were expected. (I know watch GPS isn’t totally accurate but I also know the inaccuracy pattern of *my* watch and I’ve never seen early markers before!) As such, I expected the race to measure slightly short by GPS – but the 13-mile marker more than made up for the shortfall and my watch ended up reading 13.3 at the finish, which is what I would typically expect.

Overall, it was a really great race. I’ll be back sometime when I’ve got better fitness.

Now for a week of recovery (or a fortnight if I feel I need it – I’m trying to listen to my body more) before training begins for the next one.