Tom Waterfall – 1:26:59 to 1:24:55 Great Eastern Run half marathon

Tom had originally approached me looking for help with calf and shin pain. Within 6 weeks this improved significantly, even with no real reduction in training, but the addition of strength and mobility, alongside some focused massage.

Tom then wanted to run his first official half marathon a few months later, so we began a training plan to keep risks of injury low. From a sub 1:30 target time, Tom ran a brilliantly controlled and paced race, finishing in 1:26:59 for his debut.

A 10k race on a flat course just before the plan started had predicted 1:27 with appropriate training, so Tom had executed that plan perfectly.

We moved on to a focus on speed and shorter distances for summer where Tom ran a 5k PB in 17:55, before a 5 week break from coaching ahead of the next training block to take Tom to his first marathon.

Within this second period of coaching, Tom wanted to run a fast half marathon to help guide his marathon race strategy, and selected the Great Eastern Run. We worked in some half marathon pace session to help this, and he hit a 10k PB at the always long Run Norwich in 39:03 a few weeks before, bringing his half marathon projection to 1:25 when the 10k time was used.

Tom got to G.E.R. in great shape and paced the race excellently again to run a 1:24:55, improving his PB by over 2 minutes. A hard working and intelligent racer. Top work Tom.