I ran this event as a pacer for Annie. It was her first ever half marathon and she had convinced herself she needed company, though I was equally sure that she would have been fine on her own. She had prepared reasonably well, peaking at 12 miles on her long training runs and competing in the Lliswerry 8 and Llanelli 10 in the weeks leading up to the event. Anyway, Annie has in spades something that all long-distance runners need: dogged determination. Based on her times in other events, I figured she could run a 2:10 and paced myself accordingly.
The Llanelli Half uses the same Millennium Coastal Path as the Llanelli 10, so we were both familiar with the course (and the blustery conditions!). We set off at a sensible pace, hovering around the 9:50/mile mark. We were towards the back of the pack but certainly not propping up the rear. In fact, we seemed to move steadily through the ranks, especially as people tired in the latter half of the race.
The course is really quite picturesque, stretching out along the seafront. The wind can be an issue but it didn't seem to be on that day. That was, not until the final few miles. At about 9.5 miles, the whole field doubles back on itself and if there's going to be a headwind at all, that's probably when. We saw our mile splits drop steadily: 10:06, 10:30, 10:48. But then Annie's tenacity kicked in and we completed mile 13 in 10:16 before finishing with a flourish. In the end we missed out on the 2:10 by a mere 43 seconds, but I couldn't have been prouder of Annie.
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