So after a long hiatus from racing, I have my first half marathon in almost a year.  Last year I ran 60:00 and finished third at the World Half Marathon Championships and it will be interesting to see how the race goes considering the how much different my build-up is for the Great North Run which is in just over a week in Newcastle UK.  Last year I came off having a great track season and I was running less volume than I am now.  A lot of people say you don’t run your best half marathon off marathon training, but I feel like I am not that far off the fitness I was then.  My long workouts have been getting close to those of my pre-world half workouts but the biggest difference is not having ripping fast short intervals.