Heaton Park Half Marathon:
Chasing Sub-1:45 After an Ultra

“That was tough, man.” That’s the first thing I said on camera after the Heaton Park Half Marathon, and it sums the day up.

Two weeks after the Ladybower 52K ultra, I wanted to find out how fast I could run a half. The target was 1:45 or under. It was a pure all-out, max effort. Boy, did that hurt.

It was also a family race day at RunThrough Heaton Park in Manchester: my half marathon, Jasmine’s 5K and my son Jacob’s 1K kids’ race. And it was Jacob who gave me the moment I’ll remember most.

Watch the film: Can I Run a Sub-1:45? After a 52km Ultra

Race morning: not exactly prepared

I’m not going to lie: I wasn’t ready. I hadn’t eaten properly and I didn’t sleep well. I had one gel and no water with me. Luckily, there were water stations on the route.

On the start line, everybody looked ready apart from me. Part of me wished I’d entered the 10K instead. Not how I’d tell anyone else to prepare.

Four laps and one hill

The course was four loops of the same route, so there was basically one hill. It was a decent one, but you had to do it four times.

The good news was the downhill straight after it, where you could catch time back. So that was my plan: take the hill easy, then sprint the downhill.

Chasing the 1:45 pacer

There was a pacer running exactly 1:45, so my goal was simple: stay in front of him. I didn’t want to see the guy.

By the third lap, I was slowing down, and that’s when he passed me. All I could think was, “Oh no. We’ve still got another lap.”

So I shot past him on the downhill as fast as I could and tried to put as much distance between us as possible before the last hill.

On that last hill, he overtook me again. From there, it was just hanging on for dear life, as fast as I could go. By the end of that race, I had nothing left.

The result: 11 seconds

I crossed the line in 1:45:11. Eleven seconds over the target, with absolutely nothing left in the tank.

Official race results

RunThrough Heaton Park, Manchester — 11 October 2026

Jacob’s race: what mattered most

My legs were still dead, but the main event of the day was my son’s run. He’d been looking forward to it for ages and he was so excited. It was so good to get him into a real race where he could actually do some running.

I went round with him: a stretch on the start line, up the big hill, then down through the woods. “It’s easier downhill, isn’t it?” “Yeah.”

He melted my heart. He was concentrating the whole way and put in his own max effort, all the way over the finish line to his medal.

Then, as we were walking away, he told me running had made him happy. That’s the bit that made me tear up. I just thought: wow, we’ve got a runner.

Jacob definitely loves running, and we’re going to do a lot more of it together. That meant more to me than the number on my watch.

What’s the race-day moment you’ve never forgotten? Tell me in the YouTube comments.

Cheers,
James 👍