Congratulations to Mo Hashi on his 68:03 half marathon clocking on Sunday, his first sub-70 and a massive four-minute improvement over his previous best. It also ranks him fourth on the club’s all-time half marathon ranking.
Hashi has been training for the Malaga Half on March 22nd, but with mass sporting events under review due to the coronavirus, he decided to take up the offer of an elite place in the Cambridge Half. He’s not been racing much lately, but training has been going well, and he acknowledged the support of his training partners: “The regular long run with the ESM lads at 7:30am has made a massive difference”.
He hadn’t set out intending to race hard, but the weather conditions were propitious and he felt good on the day: “I started at the back of the third group – the plan was to take the first 3 miles easy, and make it a 10 mile race. Surprisingly, I felt really good and I got to the main group at mile 4. Then I just relaxed in the pack and we took it in turns [running into] the wind… I was 11th with a group at 6/7 miles and from mile 8/9 I really wanted to push the pace as I knew I was on for a pb. Solo for the last 4 / 5 mile felt good and [I did] a very fast last section”.
I couldn’t help asking why Mo wasn’t in his club vest… Apparently it was a last-minute decision as he wanted to try out his new kit. First time racing without his club vest, he says – and he was out of area, so we’ll forgive him in the circumstances!
Organiser’s results here; full results to follow on power of 10.