Mission accomplished

At approximately 11.55am on Sunday 11^th October I finished my first half-marathon!

Looking back at it three days on, I think I enjoyed it although at the time it was agony…

The alarm went off early on Sunday morning, a bowl of porridge later and we were on our way to the station with me moaning that I didn’t want to do this and saying I wished I could go back to bed. Fortunately we bumped into another Orpington Road Runner at the station and talking to them on the train distracted me from my moaning! We arrived at Charing Cross in good time and headed off to the start area of the Royal Parks Half Marathon in Hyde Park. The Mall was deserted having already been closed off for the race, but as we got closer to the start area the crowds increased.

Once in the start area the queuing began – queuing for the toilets, then the baggage and then the toilets again, in fact we spent so much time queuing that we only just got into our start area before the race start time. We needn’t have worried too much though as once the start gun had gone we were another 10 minutes walking to the actual start line before we started running. Then imagine my surprise as I went across the line and the announcer says ‘and we have Zoe running for Cancer Research’… ‘Ooh, that’s me!’ I muttered to which the announcer confirmed ‘yes, that’s you!’ How embarrassing!!

The first couple of miles weren’t too bad as the route took us out of Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, down Bird Cage Walk, past Parliament Square and onto the Embankment and Mr W confirmed that we were going at a good pace. After a loop along the Embankment we turned back towards Trafalgar Square, along the Mall and after about 5.5 miles we re-entered Hyde Park. Here there were loads of crowds cheering everyone on and I felt quite overwhelmed by it all, especially as lots of people were calling out my name that was written on my blue Cancer Research top – yes, I was continually confused by all of these people knowing my name and kept turning round expecting to see someone I knew!

We reached the half-way point in about 1h 4min, but then it started to get hard as we weaved our way around Hyde Park and my legs, lower back, feet all started to hurt at various points. I wanted to walk but knew that if I did that I’d never start running again so I kept thinking to myself I’ll have a walk break after so many miles and then when I got there I’d think well I’ve run this far it would be silly to start walking now. Mr W stuck with me the whole time and eventually we made it to the finish straight – it wasn’t exactly a sprint finish but we did cross the line together in 2h 15min 43s!

Very pleased to have done it and to have raised so much money for Cancer Research UK (over £1000 to-date – thanks to all your support) but not sure whether I’d do it again…. although I do wonder whether with more training my legs might not have hurt so much in the second half…..

What have I let myself in for?

You know those times when you think 'why, oh why, did I agree to do that?' and 'it seemed such a good idea at that time', well I am currently having one of those moments BIG TIME! It is now less than a week, 4 days 20 hours to be more precise, until I attempt my first half marathon and I am starting to panic...

Mr W keeps reminding me of all the miles of training I have put in and whilst my rational self can see his point, my irrational panicking self can't help but focus on my lack of training in the last few weeks whilst I've been recovering from not being on my thyroxine tablets. I did 2 short runs last week and then a longer 7 mile run on Sunday but still I am not satisfied and am wondering how I am going to manage almost double that in just a few short days. And should I worry about getting out for a couple of runs this week or should I just listen to my rather weary body and focus on getting plenty of sleep instead?

So many worries and no definitive answers... the only thing I do know is that I will be there on that start line on Sunday and can feel proud that to date I have raised over £850 for Cancer Research UK. Thanks to everyone who's helped me to do that!