Lee Milburn wins at the Coastal Half Marathon 2023

Training had been going really well in the lead up to my main target race before the Yorkshire marathon. Chatting to Dave pre race in the car on the way there we had a few options in terms of race tactics which could play out once we got going. On arrival in Cleethorpes everything was blowing but we couldn’t tell which way! After warming up one of the plans had been aborted, to try and run as hard as possible from the off and  chase a mega fast time. Looking around on the start line I was working out who I could sit in behind and tick the miles off. As we got going the first mile was fast! As planned I just sat in behind the leader. We continued on through mile 2 and 3 yo-yoing the lead at around 5.05 pace. At this point I started to play through in my head how the race could pan out. As we left the twisted section through the caravan park and across a small trail section we begin a long stretch of flat road with a slight decline. At this point I was still sat in behind the leader and noticed he had taken the opportunity to take a gel. At this point I tried a little surge and found I’d opened a few meter lead which hadn’t been responded to so I pressed on for a minute or two which on my graphs can be seen as the pace and my heart rate increased. I had a lead which I hadn’t expected but wasn’t going to give it up. As we turned left we eventually hit the headwind which lasted roughly 3 miles including an off road gravelly section. It was horrible. My pace was slowing so I just focussed on keeping my heart rate stable and actually ran 5.21, 5.21, 5.23. The final tough section of the course was a mile or so along a grass path which was very hard and bumpy. I probably extended my lead on this section. I felt really comfortable running on the grass, good signs for the cross season. On leaving the off road section behind I could see I was clear and could enjoy the final few miles into the finish where the support was incredible with people lining the seafront. On reflection I probably ran slightly too hard and didn’t follow any of my pre race plans but was very happy to take the win and run a pb run on what was a challenging course with tough race conditions.