Half marathons are Simon Hearn‘s bread and butter really. Every year he picks out a few that he wants to do and then once they’re in the diary, he sets out a proper training programme for them, ensuring he’s in the best shape he can be for when the race comes around. He’s never really been interested in running marathons and feels that he doesn’t have the stamina to keep going for that long. But half marathons seem to be the distance he feels he can really excel in.

This year has been his best one yet in terms of the times he’s been able to produce and as a V55, he’s still progressing and still bettering his times each year which is remarkable. The dedication that takes should not be underestimated.

On top of that of course, Simon coaches the Junior Development Group on Tuesday and Thursday nights and puts a lot of time and effort into working with the youngsters and helping to push them on reach their full potential.

His half marathon PB from last year was 1:27:12 which he did at Cambridge. When he set that time, he wondered whether he would ever beat it. It seemed like quite a high benchmark at the time but in his first attempt this year, he managed to beat it. Recording a 1:26:13 at the Surrey Half, he’d somehow managed to knock a minute off.

Now he had an even higher target to aim for. Three weeks later, he was back on the start line again, this time for the Reading Half Marathon. Surely he couldn’t eclipse that time again, could he? And the answer to that was again, yes. Getting round in 1:25:34, it was another tremendous PB for Simon. He’s been really enjoying his journey and revelling in the results he’s been getting.

This time round he’d gone for perhaps the biggest one he’d taken part in to date. That was of course, the aptly name Big Half, held in the nation’s capital city of London. The course starts near Wapping and heads toward Canary Wharf before coming back along the Highway. It then crosses Tower Bridge and into Southwark before moving on to finish at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich.

Although his training had been going well, Simon wasn’t expecting a PB on this occasion. One reason for that was that two weeks prior to the Big Half, he had spent five days walking the Dales Way, which is 80 miles. That had taken quite a lot out of him and even though it was only hiking, it was still demanding. In truth, he wasn’t really in the right frame of mind for a PB either. He’d set his watch pacer for a 1:27 finish so that was what he was going for.

It was a very hot day though and there was little or no wind and that made it much tougher than it otherwise might have been. After the first couple of miles, he knew it wasn’t going to be easy and would likely turn into a bit of a slog. The heat was energy sapping as well but he simply had to tough it out. There was no other way.

Reaching the 5k point in 20:27, he then went on to reach the 10k stage in 40:33. He was slightly slower in the next 5k, reaching the 15k point in 1:01:10. The next 5k was a bit of a battle but Simon held it together as best he could. In the last mile he managed to latch onto another runner and stay with them, getting to 20k in 1:22:43. That left him with just a kilometre to go.

Arriving at the finish line in a time of 1:27:16, Simon finished 912th overall and was 13th in the 55-59 category. That was out of 468 competitors in his category and there were 15,693 finishers in the race in total. Taking the conditions into consideration and the fact that he wasn’t really feeling in PB shape, that was a pretty good result for Simon.

The winner of the race was Seyfu Jamaal of London Heathside who made it round in 1:03:34, with Abdulqani Sharif of Liverpool Harriers taking 2nd in 1:03:58. Jacob Allen of Highgate Harriers finished 3rd in 1:05:30. Two Pontypridd Roadents made the top six, with Daniel Hamilton taking 4th in 1:05:57 and Paul Graham sealing 6th in 1:06:25.

Stephen Jackson of Sunderland Harriers was the first vet, finishing 20th in 1:08:39. Abbie Donnelly of Lincoln Wellington was first female, crossing the line in 1:10:31 which put her 44th overall. She was quite a way ahead of Sally O’Gorman who was 2nd lady in 1:14:14 which put her 105th overall.

It was Simon’s last half marathon of the year and he’s been delighted with the times he’s achieved. His next target will be the Run Bournemouth Supersonic 10k which is in October and he’s very much looking forward to competing on home turf in that one.

Simon is currently currently getting the junior middle distance group ready for cross country season, along with Simon Saunders, and they have some excellent talent coming through the ranks.