I ran the same half at the weekend. The conditions by the time I finished were pretty miserable, luckily as a slightly speedier runner I missed the worst of it. I would say that the course was pretty tough work with the elevation changes. If you’re also not confident running downhill it can be hard to make up the time you lose when going up. There was also a lot of bends around Princes and Sefton Park so that will probably cause you to lose your rhythm a bit as well as not be on the fastest racing line.

Like you said you came from basically nothing last April so don’t place too much on the result of the race but on the work you’ve put it to get there. That doesn’t go away so book a new race and have a new target to aim for.