John and Meg after completing the 2015 half marathon
John and Meg after completing the 2015 half marathon

The Inverness Half is always a tough race, coming early in March and therefore necessitating some serious motivation to train through the dark winter months. This year I managed to get a good start to the training, incorporating speed sessions and hill reps on top of the longer runs, though it all fell apart when I was struck down with flu and couldn’t run for around three weeks.

There was still a bit of time before the race so I got back into the swing of it and ready for the event. I first tackled this race in 2004 and this was my tenth year here, though it had been 10 years since I got my personal best here in 2005 at 1hour 36min 2secs (clock time). I knew I had trained better than I had in years but with that gap in my training wasn’t sure if the PB was realistically on the cards.

I paced my race reasonably well, sticking inside my 7.15min miles I would need to beat it for the first half of the race but a couple of slower miles towards the end knocked any realistic chance of today being the day! However, I was delighted to break 1:40.00 which I hadn’t done for a long time and I finished on the nose of 1:39.00 in 306th position out of a record field of around 1800.

My wife Meg took part in the Inverness Half – her first half marathon since having our two kids – and finished in what she is proudly describing as a ‘personal worst’ of 2hrs 11mins! Her cousin Ian finished just seconds ahead of me, still a couple of minutes behind the world-record breaking mascot runners!



John with Ian Hunter at the end of the race. Picture by Calum Mackay, courtesy SPP
John with Ian Hunter at the end of the race. Picture by Calum Mackay, courtesy SPP

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