So it started last night where I had a full carb meal mainly pasta and even stuffed down a bowl of porridge ( I have eaten more porridge this last week that in my whole life) Went to bed at 9pm and slept rather well. The nerves kicked in this morning, a 6am start so I could eat yet more porridge and leave 3 hours for it to settle.
At 8.50am I made the short walk to the Rugby Center all the time thinking about my previous bad run in training where I stopped after 2.25 miles. I met a nice lady on the way called Karen she told me it would be her first half marathon as well which made me feel better about the trial to come. I knew how many people had entered by the running numbers but after a 300 runner event to a 1000 plus I was quite shocked. Around 9.15am we were making our way to the starting point (by this time I had lost Karen but was silently wishing her all the best) In the info book we had been given it advised getting into the right position for your estimated finish time. I could see no sign of any markers but had learnt my lesson from my 10k and placed myself around three quarters of the way to the back.
One of the things that amused me was the amount of Garmin and GPS watches beeping going into sleep mode and around 80% of the runners around me and including me all rushing to check if it was theirs so not to lose signal. I kept myself to myself at this point trying to think about what was going to happen and trying not freeze to death! The man with the megaphone said go and the crowd soon shimmied its way to a slow trot and before I knew it I had crossed the start to the sound of Faithless God is a DJ which I found quite amusing as I used to be a DJ before giving up due to hearing loss.Crossing the starting line was quite emotional and I could feel myself welling up.
Before we had even got to the first mile Iwas faced with a hill, I have not done any hill training before but knew my heart rate would go up from the 166bpm I had calculated to keep it at to the run the complete distance, with the first hill tackled and mutual groans from my fellow runners what followed was a beautiful course through the countryside. The amount of support from the locals, children and dogs lining the course with deck chairs, pom poms and bells was outstanding, a real boost! Even people passing in cars further down the course would slow down and wave and cheer words of support out the window.
Around 3 miles in something happened that i can only describe in one way... I felt as though someone had stuck Energizer batteries up my bum as I suddenly felt fantastic, the best I've ever felt whilst running. I maintained my 166bpm except on hills when it went up to 180bmp and believe you me there were a lot of hills! The biggest hill was at around mile 5, I could see the majority of people around me slowing and walking, this is something I have done before when faced with a hill in training but at the top of the hill was a marshall and a photographer, no way was I going to be caught walking on the one picture that they get of me so I ran (well shuffled) up that hill and it felt great!
Mile 7 was a good checkpoint as there was a lovely lady holding out a massive bag of Jelly Babies for people to take. It is true what your parents say do not take sweets from a stranger but this lady was a god send at that point and I happily munched away (plus she was a marshall and I had no reason to believe she would want to kidnap me or poison me) Throughout the race so far I had felt tip top and kept saying to myself this is one of the best things I have ever done, then changed that thought to this IS the best thing I have ever done. The weather was on my side and the best thing was I was also raising money for the charity SHINE.
Mile 9 was the tough one, I had hit a bit of a slump but nothing as bad I have in training, it lasted around 5 minutes and I managed to tell myself that the finish is close, I actually think I hit that slump as I realised I was sad it was nearly over! The miles had been flying by so fast i really didn't want it to end, I even shouted to a marshall that I wished I had entered the Marathon now!
As i tootled around mile 12 I could see in the distance the finish line ( never have I been so happy to see half of an inflatable bouncy castle) I picked up my pace massively now as had kept in reserve my last push of energy, I started sprinting and managed to pass some runners along the canal side then as it got to the main car park where all the support and finish line was I let rip over took quite a few and crossed that finish line with tears down my face (tears of happiness)
I had forced myself not to look at the time on my watch throughout, I was hoping for a few scenarios
Worst case 2 hours 45, best case 2 hours 30.. i hesitantly looked at the time I had logged and it was 2 hours 31 minutes and 14 seconds, I was elated as this included a toilet break!
This was the best thing I have ever done, the race was so well organized, marshalled and support was just crazy! Bring on the Lichfield Half Marathon in two weeks :-)
Here's the link for details of the route and my splits from my Garmin watch Worcester Half Marathon by enigmatik3 at Garmin Connect - Details: http://bit.ly/L7fPdi
No comments:
Post a Comment