Lloyd Biddell

As part of my build up to the Chester Marathon in three weeks time I entered the Great Bristol Half Marathon so I could see where my fitness is at and give me an idea of what sort of pace I should be aiming for.  My last Half Marathon was the Ramathon back in June where I finished in 71.00, but today was I hoping for sub 70 mins, if not a touch quicker but easier said than done. I was accepted for an elite entry and was 'seeded' 9th out of 9 elites, but knowing my current form and peeking at everyone elses recent race results I thought somewhere between 5th and 7th was on, assuming there were no other non-elites that could run faster.  As it later turned out I think only 6 or 7 elites actually started. I tried not to set off like a lunatic and I was in around 12th after the first few hundred metres before quickly settling into 10th.  After the first km two groups of four had formed, the first group pulling away into a decent lead of about 30 metres, followed by the se...

I had my breakthrough moment at this race last year coming a very unexpected 2nd but in very tough gale force conditions.  At the time I felt it was a near miss as I badly twisted my ankle as I was on my way to closing down the leader.  I wanted to try the race again and give it a go in better conditions and hopefully not twist my ankle this time. Lining up at the start I just felt very sluggish for some reason.  Sometimes it amounts to something and other times it doesn't.  However within the first km something just didn't feel right.  None the less I was reasonably well positioned, just behind a leading group of six and a few others just behind including myself.  After the first km I was in 10th.  After 2km we departed from the road and in the meantime I had picked off a couple more runners and I was consciously trying to keep off the gas as you can easily pay for too much effort in the latter part of the course.  The first thing that struck m...

The last couple of months of training have been a bit up and down.  I was starting to hit some good form in early July but then I started to develop some pain at the back of the knee and various other niggles which I've struggled to shake off.  As a result I've done very little focused sessions and have been trying to just get out and do some miles to keep ticking over.  Today's race was therefore a bit of an unknown. I knew that the Burton 10k course was very undulating and most definitely not a pb course.  The plan was to take the first couple of km easy as the climb was best part of 50 metres.  Over the undulating next 6km I then planned to gradually make a move and throw everything left into the sharp downhill in the last 2km to the finish. Course Profile As we set off I felt pretty reasonable and was happy to slot into 3rd with two runners about 5-10 metres ahead of me.  This continued for the first km and into a very sharp 30m hill where I pu...

After my time of 2.27.59 at the Manchester Marathon I managed to obtain a free elite entry to the Ramathon as the qualifying time was sub 2.28.00 so in this case literally every second counts! The day was clearly going to be very warm (circa 20 degrees) and a reasonable breeze too, not conducive to the fastest possible times.  I had a mini altercation on the start line as one of the elite runners from Coventry Godiva casually just pushed his way right in front of me at the start line.  I decided hold my ground so when it came to be 'On Your Marks' he couldn't lean into a racing start pose and he had to start bolt upright! Start Over the first km there was an early group of 7 of us, four of which formed the main group and the remaining 3 of us in single file behind with me at the back.  Just before the end of the first km the group split into two and I was in the second bunch.  I felt reasonably comfortable, yet was surprised to go through the first km in 3....

Since my exerts from the Greater Manchester Marathon I've taken several days off and whilst more recently my current mileage is back to normal, I've kept all of my runs to less than 10 miles and not done many 'sessions' to speak of.  A couple of weeks ago it was confirmed that I've been called up to represent England in the V35-39 category at the Chester Marathon in October so my training in the next few months will be geared towards this. Whilst I haven't done any speed sessions since March I quite fancied a 10k to see where my short distance fitness currently is.  The Great Birmingham 10k fit the bill and following my Manchester marathon time I approached the elite co-ordinator for the event, asking them whether it was possible to enter as normal but get a better starting position than in the mass start - the fastest time I could put on the entry form was 'sub 36 mins' and I was concerned I'd be stuck in the pack and it compromise the race.  As i...

Today was the big race that I've been working up to over the last few months.  I have done a marathon way back in 2008 which I did in 2.53 so sort of remember how difficult it was but for all intents and purposes this was my debut at the distance since I've started to run again.  I chose Manchester in part because the timing was right, it is a flattish course and also because I discovered that certain marathons are used by England Athletics as qualifiers for 'age group marathons'.  What this effectively means is that if you come in the top 5 for your age group (in my case 35-39) then there is a chance that you can be selected to represent your country - assuming you register your interest with them beforehand which I duly did some months ago. The last few weeks have been quite new to me training wise; typically I max out at about 85 miles a week but then I've had a few niggles along the way which often meant having to cut back on training.  Three weeks ago I took ...

Over the last few weeks I've done some good tempo runs so knew that my half marathon PB of 1.14.37 set last October was almost certainly going to be broken.  I was thinking about 1.11.00 to 1.11.30 was possible but 3 days out from the race I caught a cold.  The cold was not a major one but it was enough to make me feel pretty lethargic, chesty and generally off form.  Whilst it was not bad enough for me to consider pulling out of the race, all bets were off in terms of my time. The first few hundred metres were slightly downhill and quite early on there were four of us who formed an early group.  The pace felt testing but at the same time was not so fast that it was causing me too many concerns.  Every now and then there would be a small surge in the pace but it soon settled down.  One thing I noticed was that on the small downhills (mostly to underpasses) I would drop to the back of the group but then coming back out uphill I would close the gap with eas...