Tactics for Stratford Half Marathon

During the last week I have been debating how to run my first half marathon which is at Stratford this Sunday. Having had a good run at the Leamington 10k recently I am going to try and do something similar. I intend to run the first 5km very conservatively then aim to run hard for the next 10km and then see what I have left for the final 6km. Depending upon how I feel I might run a km just after the half way point at a slower pace to try and conserve some energy for the latter part of the race. Being my first half marathon I will just have to play things by ear, but the most important thing is that I enjoy it.

In terms of finishing times anything over 1hr30min will be a disaster, between 1hr25 to 1h30 will be ok, and anything less than 1hr 25 I'll be very happy with. Using some of the running calculators available my predicted time based upon my fastest 10k performances is between 1hr 21 and 1hr 22:40 - however being my first half marathon it is unlikely I will run that quickly to begin with. Looking forward to it...

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