A massive accomplishment

Sunday was finally the big day. I’ve been training to run a half marathon for months and months and yesterday was the day of the Robin Hood Half Marathon.

The weather wasn’t forecast to be any good at all so the night before my Dad made me a state of the art rain coat.

I’ve been training hard with one of my best friends and although I’ve just been on holiday for two weeks I managed to go to the gym a few times while I was away. I didn’t go too far - just 5km each time - but I did some hill training. She did a few runs on her own while I was away but half way through my holiday she hurt her heel. She started with me on the big day.

 

Unfortunately she was in a lot of pain as we set off and really really struggled when we reached the first uphill section. We had to walk a lot of the uphill bits at the beginning but she powered through a lot of pain until we got to about 7.5km. At this point she had to stop - she was in so much pain she really couldn’t keep going any more.

The rest of the way I was then on my own. It was so boring! And so so difficult trying to run without my mate there with me. That’s all I’ve known for weeks and weeks. She always leads us and keeps time and keeps me going through all of the worst bits when I’m really struggling and just want to give up and cry.

I was really pleased to see my parents and hubby when I got to Wollaton Park. That wasn’t too long after I had to leave her and was really tempted to just cry and give up but I pushed through even though my mum made me stop for a photo!

There was then a really long way to go to the finish. It just felt never ending. The thing that kept me going was all of the people on every corner. There were so many kids out with boxes of sweets and people cheering everyone on. It was lovely.

At one point when I was struggling I was on a walk interval (I run/walk or Jeff as it’s become known) when I went past what must have been a group of about 10 students. My most encouraging moment was when one of them shouted my name (it’s on my number) and started cheering me on to run again and keep going. I skipped the last few seconds of my walk interval and started running just because of the energy I got from the encouragement.

At the last mile there were some “angels” who were there to run with people and keep them going to get across the finish line. A mile at that point still felt like a really long way so as soon as I saw one of these helpers I asked one of the lovely ladies to help me get to the end. I had got too hot with my cap on and was starting to feel a bit ropey. She was lovely as I asked her to make me run to certain points (the timed intervals had gone out of the window by then - it was hard to hear the buzzing on my phone from my belt) and then we’d walk together for a bit.

I was so excited when I saw my dad waiting for me near the end and not too far from him my hubby and mum too. They got a few photos of me at this bit too.

That felt so far from the end at that point I remember. I really thought I was never going to get there!

The angel lady said that she was allowed to cross the finish line but wouldn’t if people didn’t want her to be in their finishing photos. I asked her to as I didn’t have my friend to finish with. We always hold hands and sprint to the finish so I asked if she wouldn’t mind doing the same thing with me. She did - although I think I set off with my sprint a bit too early as I want sure she was going to keep up! Whoops!

Oh well. I made it. My final time (which I found out online later as my watch died during the run) was 2:35:36. I was aiming for 2hrs 30 which I didn’t quite manage but considering the events of the day I’m pretty pleased with that. A huge achievement - definitely one of the biggest that I’ve done. Well proud of myself.