In many ways it was the culmination of decades of hard work and dedication to his craft. All the training sessions, the long runs, the strength work and the blood, sweat and tears that he’s put in over the years had helped gear him up for this moment. At the Swansea Half Marathon, it was Simon Hearn‘s time to don that fabled England Masters vest.

Three weeks before the Swansea Half Marathon, Simon competed in the qualifying race, which was the Chester Half Marathon. It was the second consecutive year he’d attempted to qualify via the Chester Half Marathon. The year before he clocked a time of 1:26:50 which put him third in his age category. That was enough to see him earn his England Masters vest for the Great South Run later in the year. Due to a massive storm over the weekend though, that race never actually happened.

This year he faced the pressure of trying to repeat that feat and qualify again to wear that England Masters vest. The Swansea Half Marathon was the designated representative race for the England Masters verses Wales verses UK armed forces event. It had all the makings of a competitive classic and Simon was part of the England Masters team.

The weather was hot on the day which added to the challenge but Simon rose to it, knocking out his splits consistently at around 6:45 pace. The course for the Chester Half Marathon contains a hill that goes on for the majority of the last mile.

Hills are not Simon’s strong point as he does most of his training on the promenade. Managing to speed up on the 12th mile to account for any lost time on that final mile, he managed to grind it out and get to the finish line in 1:29:12.

It was a smartly paced and well executed effort from Simon and put him 10th in the MV55 category. Crucially, it was enough to see him qualify for an England Masters vest at Swansea and this time he was destined to finally get his moment.

The only frustration from Simon’s perspective was that he wasn’t running quite as well this year as he was the previous year. He was probably a couple of minutes off his best in all honesty but he was determined to give it his best shot.

Simon wasn’t the only Bournemouth AC member to feature at the Swansea Half Marathon. Katie Gunn and Jack Barwick were there as well. For Katie it was a return to the scene of her half marathon PB of 1:25:54 that she set the previous year. That was enough to earn her for the Championship place for the London Marathon the following Spring.

Unfortunately she was sick whilst running her first ever marathon and ended up finishing in 3:31 which wasn’t the time she was hoping for. She did bounce back and finish first female at the North Dorset Village Marathon the following weekend though so she was pleased to achieve something positive from the block of training.

Jack had only really started racing for the club this year, with his fear of crossing the finish line putting him off previously. He completed the Lytchett 10 in just under 1 hour 6 minutes and then went on to run the Eastleigh 10k in 38:18.

Both Katie and Jack competed at the May 5 league race, with Katie finishing 2nd lady in 31:04 and Jack clocking a time of 32:07.

Starting in front of Swansea Arena, the route for the half marathon heads toward Singleton before passing through the university campus. It then heads back toward the city centre, passing the historic Brangwyn Hall and Castle ruins on the way.

Beginning with a couple of 6:39 splits, Simon then went on to register a 6:34 for his third mile, even though it contained a small incline. He then clocked a 6:38 for his fourth mile and a 6:35 for his fifth.

He then went on to post a 6:46 and then a 6:48 for his sixth and seventh miles. After that he was around 6:50 pace for the next five miles before he then ramped it up to 6:40 for the final mile.

That put his finishing time at 1:28:26 which saw him take 21st place in a highly competitive M55 category. That was out of a total 165 runners. With so many talented masters athletes there, that had to go down as a decent result for Simon.

It put him in 354th place overall out of 5,730 and his average pace for the run came out at 6:44 per mile. It was a solid performance from Simon but when he looks back on it and analyses how it went, he feels like should have worked harder from mile 7 onwards. He sort of seemed to settle into a comfortable pace after that instead of perhaps showing more aggression.

Of course, it’s easy to look back on a race and see where you went wrong but it’s more difficult to make these decisions and judge it correctly at the time. It may have been a confidence issue as well. He’d tired out a different training plan this time and it hadn’t quite got him into as good shape as he usually is ahead of a target race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starting off with a 6:30 for her first mile split, Katie then followed it up with a 6:23 and a 6:22. She then went on to register a 6:27 for her fourth mile, followed by a 6:23 for her fifth.

She then went through her sixth mile in 6:35 before clocking a 6:30 for her seventh. A 6:37, followed by a 6:31 saw her get to end of mile 9 in great shape. She was slightly slower for the tenth and eleventh miles, with a 6:41 followed by a 6:46. After that she got back on pace well though, registering a 6:35 followed by a 6:26.

Completing the course in a time of 1:26:28, Katie finished 44th female out of 2,330 and came 274th overall out of 5,730. It was an excellent run from Katie and pretty close to the time she managed the previous year.

Jack made a spritely start, with a 6:27 followed by a 6:21. He then went through the third mile in 6:28 before clocking a a 6:26 for his fourth mile and a 6:25 for his fifth. After that he was just over 6:30 pace for the next four miles, seeing him reach the end of the ninth mile in pretty good shape.

That was when his pace started to drop a touch but not a lot really. He hit a 6:37 for his tenth mile before going on to register a 6:40 for his eleventh and a 6:48 for his twelfth.

Once he gets near the end of races, Jack usually slows down. Not because he has to aerobically but because he needs to mentally prepare himself for crossing that finish line. At that point he needs to stay cool, calm and collected. He managed to achieve that without too much of a drop-off, putting in a 7:17 for his final mile split.

Reaching the finish in a brilliant time of 1:27:02, Jack had come in 296th place overall. It was a terrific result really in his first ever official half marathon race. After a performance like that, he’ll no doubt be keen for more in the not too distant future.

Omar Ahmed won the race in a time of 1:03:13 which put him close to a couple of minutes ahead of Dewi Griffiths of Swansea Harriers who was second in 1:05:04. Omar Ahmed was the man who Abdi Elmi just pipped to the post to win the Newport 10k despite the lead marshal taking both of them the wrong way. Ollie Lockley of Leeds City finished third in 1:05:57.

Dean Williamson was the first athlete over the line in the Masters competition. He was representing the UK Armed Forces team in the M35 category, coming fourth overall in 1:06:32.

Matthew Rees was next for the UK Armed Forces in 1:09:34 which put him in 9th place and William Evens followed in in 1:10:01 to make it a UKAF one, two, three. Philips Matthews of Parc Bryn Bach took fourth place overall in 1:07:57. He wasn’t in the Masters competition even though he was an M45.

Natasha Wilson was first female and 20th overall in 1:12:13. Louise Small of Aldershot Farnham & District was second lady and 23rd overall in 1:12:59 and Chelsea Baker of Bristol & West was third female and 34th overall in 1:14:08.

The quality of the runners in Simon’s age group at the Swansea Half Marathon was extremely high, which makes sense given that it was an England Masters race. He really was up against the cream of the crop in that respect so it was a great experience for him to be able to test himself against athletes of that calibre.

Above all, he was very proud to have put on the England Masters vest and that was something he won’t forget any time soon. A lot of hard work had gone into that achievement and it was something that he thoroughly deserved for the relentless output he delivers. He’ll be determined to keep working hard in the future no doubt to ensure he gets another opportunity to pull on the famous white and red vest.

It was only five days time before Katie and Jack would be back in race action again at the Purbeck 10k, which is held on a Friday evening. That was a Dorset Road League event where they were joined by a strong contingent of Bournemouth AC representatives. Katie then went on to run the Alresford 10k on Sunday, making it a busy week of racing for her.