Hartlepool Half 2026: Went Out Too Fast and Found Out

31st May. Hartlepool Half. 1:38:49.

The Strava description I typed when I got home was "went out too fast and found out quickly in the heat". That's still the honest summary. But there was more to this one than the time.

Why Hartlepool

Hartlepool is where I'm from. For Christmas I bought my mum a place in this race so the two of us could run it together, and Michaela ended up entering as well. It was my mum's first half marathon since 2018.

So this wasn't a race I'd picked off a calendar to chase a number. It was a day at home with the two of them that happened to be a race.

Where I was at

Six weeks earlier I'd run the Manchester Marathon in 3:43:54. Three weeks after that I'd run a parkrun PB at Stretford. Then the week before this race I was in the Lakes doing four days on the fells.

I came back from the Lakes with an Achilles niggle, so I wasn't running as much as I'd have liked in the run up, and I hadn't done anything specific for a half marathon. No block, no goal pace, no sessions at target effort.

But I knew the course was flat, and I knew I was fitter than I'd been in a long time. I didn't have a target as such. I just thought a PB was on.

The first 10K

It was very warm.

I went through the first seven kilometres at 4:19, 4:21, 4:22, 4:23, 4:23, 4:23, 4:21. Metronomic, and far too quick. My half PB at Manchester last October averaged 4:35 per kilometre, so I was covering the opening third of this race faster than I'd ever run a half in my life, on a hotter day, off no specific training.

It felt fine at the time. It always does.

10K came up in 44:08. That's close to 10K race effort, not half marathon effort.

The water

The water stations were cups, already filled, and I couldn't take one at pace without wearing most of it. So I stopped, drank, and started again. Every time.

On a warm day I wasn't going to skip them. But each stop breaks the rhythm, and after a few of them I was running a series of efforts between drinks rather than a race.

12K to 15K

5:21. 5:10. 5:26.

Three kilometres that cost me more than two minutes against the pace I'd been holding. There was no drama to it. No cramp, nothing that hurt. I'd gone out too hard and there was nothing left to hold that pace with, and I knew exactly what had happened while it was happening.

The last 7K

5:03, 4:50, 4:43, 4:39, 4:49, 4:59, 4:49.

The numbers look like a recovery and they aren't really one. It was still stop start all the way in, still stopping at the water, and by that point I just wanted to be finished.

Average heart rate for the day was 166 with a max of 178.

What it was worth

1:38:49. My third quickest half marathon, and 62 seconds off the 1:37:47 I ran at Manchester last October, which I ran full of cold on an October morning with a proper build behind it.

I was disappointed. I still am, a bit. Not with the time on its own, but because I'm fairly sure the PB was there and I threw it away in the first kilometre. Start at 4:35, be bored for 10K, and it's a different afternoon.

After

The Achilles flared up worse after this one, which was the frustrating part. There was nothing in the calendar next, no block waiting, nothing to build towards.

But my mum ran a half marathon for the first time in eight years, and the three of us did it in the town I grew up in. That part went exactly as well as I wanted it to.

Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4s again, same as Manchester. No complaints there.