The Coll Half’s never easy. While the island might be low, it’s far from flat and, with one section on sandy track and the virtual certainty of battling the wind somewhere as you run round what can seem like a continuously uphill loop, it’s the hardest/slowest half-marathon course I know. Which might explain why it had been the scene of my three slowest times (1:41:29, 1:42:14 and 1:42:43) anywhere, with 2013’s result now making that four! Except that this one’s different, with 1:39:29 in possibly the hardest conditions yet being not only two minutes less bad than my least bad previous on Coll but my first actual improvement there. Which, being hill-fit but far from road-fast (oops!) after a big summer of hill running and walking but negligible road running or speed work, I could almost convince myself is respectable as ‘equating’ to a good five minutes (or maybe even half-a-minute-per-mile) faster on any ‘normal’ course. So, yep, let’s just pretend it’s respectable and hope for something more respectable again next year!
With thanks for the usual great company from regulars including the Dumfries crowd and Eileen, who took the photo with Keith’s camera.
https://collhalfmarathon.org.uk/half-marathon-2013/
