A huge field of over 17,000 runners lined up for the 2025 Big Half and that included Bournemouth AC members Matt Brown and Barry Dolman. Both Matt and Barry are currently training for for big marathons, with Barry set to take on the New York City Marathon at the beginning of November and Matt lining up the Valencia Marathon in December.

As seasoned marathon campaigners, both Matt and Barry know what they’re doing with regard to marathon training and are also both well aware of the threat of injury and importance of being careful not to overdo it in training sessions and races during the build up to a marathon.

In fact, Barry fell victim to that during his training for the London Marathon earlier this year. He’d been hitting really big mileage and had even gone the full marathon distance in three hours. Plus he’d been doing all the marathon sessions and had got himself into probably his highest ever level of fitness.

Then 25 days before the race he picked up a calf injury and that was it. He wasn’t able to continue properly with his training after that and had to dial it back at a crucial time. He still managed to do the marathon and came away with a time of 3 hours 4 minutes which was great under circumstances but it wasn’t anywhere near what he would have been capable of had he not had the injury.

For his current block of training, he’s still been hitting high mileage but he’s been more cautious in his training sessions and his long runs and has been careful to remain disciplined at all times.

Also have had injuries hamper his training in the past, Matt now takes a very sensible approach to his running. He looks to keep all his efforts controlled and tries not to go too deep during his sessions, especially when he’s working toward a marathon or a big target race.

This time he’s decided to take a different approach altogether to his preparations for the Valencia Marathon. He’ll be doing all his sessions on heart rate, rather than trying to hit a certain pace. With that method, you can be sure that you’re not pushing your body too far in sessions and trying to force something that might not be there on the day. That should enable to him to ensure he can keep training consistently without any breaks and will be able to recover okay in between sessions.

He’s already employed that technique in races before and it does work. In fact, he did it in the Málaga Marathon when he ran his PB of 2:41:37. Because he was running it on heart rate, he was able to ensure he hadn’t pushed himself too hard in the first 20 miles and was then able to up the pace in the last 10k when everyone else was slowing down.

The Big Half represented a good opportunity for Matt and Barry to assess their current level of fitness as they work toward their bigger target races. The route for the Big Half starts by Towers Bridge and finishes just beside the Cutty Sark in Greenwich.

Starting off at a heart rate of about 160, Matt kept it pretty constant until the eighth mile when he allowed it to go up to 170 for a mile. After that he kept it between 160 and 170 for remainder of the race.

The pace was what it was. He wasn’t even looking at it. Completing the first 5k in 19:41, he was in 484th place at that stage. Making it to 10k in 38:33, he’d registered a second 5k of 18:52. He’d climbed up to 370th place by that point though.

It was pretty much the same pace for the next 5k and Matt moved up to 304th. His next 5k was a little bit slower at 19:21 but he still gained several places and was now up to 271st.

Crossing the line in 1 hour 21 minutes and 2 seconds, Matt finished 174th male in the end and 289th in total. That was pretty high up out of 17,206 finishers. His average pace for the run was 6:05 per mile.

None of that was important for Matt though. What was important was how he felt doing it and he felt really strong. He felt like he could have gone on to do the same again, with no problems. That was a great sign for his marathon prospects and it was still fairly early on in his training block as well.

As he continues his training, the pace that he runs at should increase as he builds a greater aerobic threshold. But the heart rate he runs at won’t change and his effort level shouldn’t need to change either.

Starting off at around 6:20 pace, Barry went through the first 5k in 19:52 which out him in 541st place. He upped that a bit in his second 5k to a 19:20 which saw him get to 10k in 39:12. That put him up to 461st place.

Going through his next 5k in 19:28, Barry had moved up to 406th place before going through his last 5k in 19:29 which saw him move into 353rd place. His pace at that stage was between 6:10 and 6:15 pace.

That left just one kilometre to go but there was still enough time time for Barry to gain a further eight places, making him 345th male. His finishing time of 1:22:22 was a new personal best for him, just bettering the 1:22:44 he ran at the Gosport Half Marathon in 2022. That put him 364th in the overall standings.

Impressively, Barry finished second in the 55 to 59 age group out of 749 runners. Michael Morris of Ranelagh Harriers was the only man in that category who finished ahead of him and that was only by a minute. He came 298th in 1:21:17.

That was a good boost for Barry as it confirmed that he was in and around his best sort of form. The course for the New York City Marathon is quite undulating so it might be tricky to challenge is marathon PB of 2:53:16 which he did at Sydney in September last year. He did run 2:54:26 at Boston though in 2023 and that is a hilly course which shows that he can cope well in that sort of scenario.

As usual, Barry went to the race with his mate Stacey Dickinson who runs for Wimborne AC. He was training for the Chicago Marathon and completed the Big Half in 1:28:49 which put him in 904th place.

Aldershot, Fanrham & District man Jack Rowe won the Big Half for the third consecutive year, getting round in a time of 1 hour 4 minutes and 8 seconds. Aaden Mohamud of Thames Valley Harriers was second in 1:04:46 and Weynay Ghebresilasie of Shettleston Harriers was third in 1:04:53, with Ollie Lockley Leeds City taking fourth in 1:04:55.

Jonathan Cornish who trains with the fast Poole AC group finished 10th in 1:07:38 and Jessica Warner-Judd of Blackburn Harriers was first female and 25th overall in 1:10:35. Abbie Donnelly of Lincoln Wellington was second female in 1:11:24 which put her 33rd overall. Samantha Harrison of Mansfield Harriers was third lady 1:11:40 which put her 38th overall.