{"id":1959,"date":"2015-03-15T20:46:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T20:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1959"},"modified":"2015-10-16T16:36:43","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T15:36:43","slug":"inverness-half-marathon-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/2015\/03\/15\/inverness-half-marathon-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Inverness Half Marathon 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1957\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1957\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/2015\/03\/15\/inverness-half-marathon-2015\/inv-half-2015-john-meg\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1957\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1957\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Inv-Half-2015-John-Meg.jpg\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Inv-Half-2015-John-Meg.jpg?fit=1024%2C764&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1024,764\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Inv Half 2015 John Meg\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;John and Meg after completing the 2015 half marathon&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Inv-Half-2015-John-Meg.jpg?fit=640%2C477&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Inv-Half-2015-John-Meg-450x336.jpg?resize=450%2C336\" alt=\"John and Meg after completing the 2015 half marathon\" width=\"450\" height=\"336\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1957\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Inv-Half-2015-John-Meg.jpg?resize=450%2C336&amp;ssl=1 450w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Inv-Half-2015-John-Meg.jpg?resize=300%2C224&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Inv-Half-2015-John-Meg.jpg?resize=960%2C716&amp;ssl=1 960w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Inv-Half-2015-John-Meg.jpg?resize=250%2C187&amp;ssl=1 250w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Inv-Half-2015-John-Meg.jpg?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1957\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">John and Meg after completing the 2015 half marathon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>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&#8217;t run for around three weeks.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;t sure if the PB was realistically on the cards.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>My wife Meg took part in the Inverness Half &#8211; her first half marathon since having our two kids &#8211; and finished in what she is proudly describing as a &#8216;personal worst&#8217; of 2hrs 11mins! Her cousin Ian finished just seconds ahead of me, still a couple of minutes behind the world-record breaking mascot runners!<\/p>\n<p><code><br \/>\n<iframe src='https:\/\/connect.garmin.com\/activity\/embed\/716579570' width='465' height='500' frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/code><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1964\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1964\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/2015\/03\/15\/inverness-half-marathon-2015\/wpid-wp-1426287978198-jpeg\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1964\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1964\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg?fit=2048%2C1363&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2048,1363\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;John with Ian Hunter at the end of the race. Picture by Calum Mackay, courtesy SPP&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg?fit=640%2C426&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198-450x299.jpeg?resize=450%2C299\" alt=\"John with Ian Hunter at the end of the race. Picture by Calum Mackay, courtesy SPP\" width=\"450\" height=\"299\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1964\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg?resize=450%2C299&amp;ssl=1 450w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg?resize=960%2C639&amp;ssl=1 960w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg?resize=250%2C166&amp;ssl=1 250w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/wpid-wp-1426287978198.jpeg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1964\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">John with Ian Hunter at the end of the race. Picture by Calum Mackay, courtesy SPP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5M0xs-vB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":656,"url":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/2011\/03\/13\/inverness-half-marathon-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":1959,"position":0},"title":"Inverness Half Marathon 2011","author":"John Davidson","date":"March 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Today was race day in Inverness - and it was a cold and windy one to run 13.1 miles around the city through slushy snow! My run wasn't the best I've ever run, in fact it was the slowest for that distance! Thankfully I did manage to do it in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;John's blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"John's blog","link":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/content\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52,"url":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/15\/inverness-half-marathon-2010\/","url_meta":{"origin":1959,"position":1},"title":"Inverness Half Marathon 2010","author":"John Davidson","date":"March 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I was taking part in the Inverness Half Marathon yesterday on a warm and showery 'spring' day. More than 1300 runners finished the race and I completed it in 1hr 48mins 8secs, which I am delighted with considering the lack of running I have been doing this winter. It was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;John's blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"John's blog","link":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/content\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Inverness Half Marathon 2010","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/inverness_half_2010_john-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1776,"url":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/10\/inverness-half-marathon-2014\/","url_meta":{"origin":1959,"position":2},"title":"Inverness Half Marathon 2014","author":"John Davidson","date":"March 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been steadily improving my times at the Inverness Half over the last few years so I was pleased to continue that trend at the weekend with a 1:41.55 - even though I was hoping to break 1:40 for the first time in a long time! I felt pretty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;John's blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"John's blog","link":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/content\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5009,"url":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/2019\/03\/16\/a-cold-and-wet-inverness-half-marathon-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":1959,"position":3},"title":"A cold and wet Inverness Half Marathon 2019","author":"John Davidson","date":"March 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Layers of running clothes did little to keep out the icy wind blasting along the course of the Inverness Half Marathon, which took place in the Highland capital on Sunday, March 10.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;John's blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"John's blog","link":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/content\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2822,"url":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/2017\/03\/12\/after-12-years-a-new-pb-at-the-2017-inverness-half-marathon\/","url_meta":{"origin":1959,"position":4},"title":"After 12 years&#8230; a new PB at the 2017 Inverness Half Marathon","author":"John Davidson","date":"March 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Inverness Half Marathon is always one of the first events on my calendar, and it so often feels like spring is really here (on the years it doesn't snow, at least) once it is done. That was the case today as the sun shone in the late afternoon, despite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;John's blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"John's blog","link":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/content\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170312_141334-e1489350053485-540x960.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":602,"url":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/13\/half-marathon-training-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1959,"position":5},"title":"Half marathon training","author":"John Davidson","date":"February 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Spent a very soggy morning pounding the streets of Inverness following the route of the half marathon, which takes place on March 13. The 12.8 mile run (we skipped the last little bit into the stadium and round the track) was the furthest I had run in... I can't remember\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;John's blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"John's blog","link":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/content\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1969,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions\/1969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bl6.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}