Next stop: Getafe Half Marathon

On Sunday I'm running in the Getafe Half Marathon. The race numbers sell out very quickly because - in spite of being at 600m above sea level - it is the fastest Half Marathon in Madrid as it is a very flat course. I'm a bit nervous about it because this is the first time in months I will be trying to beat a fairly tough Personal Best (1:26:44 in the Madrid Half Marathon last year). To beat 4 hours in the Marathon was just a question of it coming together on the day (or, in other words, nothing screwing up). The San Silvestre race was in "plan coña" as my coach observed when he saw the results. Other than the Madrid Half Marathon and a 10K race I did back in February last year, all the other races I did were either duathlons or triathlons and they are all so dependent on the course and the weather that there is no way to compare between them. As I have said before, this is one of the main reasons I prefer competing in triathlons. But on Sunday, I know I would be looking at my watch and cursing every second that I am over budget. I think I will do what I did in both the 10K and the Half Marathon I did last year, in both of which cases I got a PB: I will turn off all the displays on my watch to do with speed, pace or even elapsed time and just run to my heart rate. It takes quite a lot of discipline not to even look at the big red digital clock that looms over the arch that you pass half way - sometimes you overhear someone saying that we are on such and such a pace. I'm going to focus on running as well as I can, keeping sheltered from the wind and meting out my efforts so that my glycogen stores get me just over the line.