Redbush Runner

I ran my 5th official half marathon at the weekend.  Because I don't run halves very often, I haven't yet reached the stage where I feel completely comfortable with the distance.  I think when you are only doing one a year, each time feels like starting from scratch.  I've been proud of all my halves and have always managed a respectable (if not speedy) finishing time but I still find the distance intimidating and I never quite believe that I'm going to be able to complete it.  This time round, I decided to follow a proper training plan and do what it told me to do.  In particular, if it called for a long and slow run, that was exactly what I would do.  I had to rid myself of the silly notion that taking longer than 6 minutes to run a kilometer was something I should feel ashamed of.  On the contrary, slowing my pace was the only way I was going to be able to tackle a half marathon distance without burning myself out too soon and having to experience t...