Well, I Did It!

Wow! What a great day. Yesterday I ran in the Half Marathon race I have been training for all this time - The Royal Parks Half-Marathon. It wasn't the painful ordeal I imagined it might be all those months ago when I entered it on a whim. It was actually great fun, really enjoyable and the odd ache aside not too painful.

I am so glad I had run the distance before - in training on Hampstead Heath - because come the big day I wasn't phased at all and knew I'd do it no matter what. The fact that I'd been sponsored so much money - thank you everyone - meant there was no way I'd quit. Damn it I would have slithered home on my hands and knees if necessary.
The setting was brilliant and the route was incredible. With the roads closed to traffic it was a brilliant new perspective of touristy London - Buckingham Palace, House of Parliament, Westminster Bridge, London Eye and of course Hyde Park (which the last 7 miles looped around). Typically because it was a touristy route there were lots of bemused tourists who had no idea what was going on and occasionally lurched into the road but that was one of very few grumbles most people had about the whole race. It was really well organised and the only real issue was lack of loos at the start which manifested itself in loads of people darting off behind a tree more or less straight after the start - including some desperate fella doing a "Paula" in full sight of everyone.

I didn't listen to music for the first time ever while running but although there were a couple of occasions when I could have done with the lift only Eye Of The Tiger can provide I mainly didn't need it. What really gave me a boost was seeing Holly and Annie with their homemade signs during the course - nearly brought a tear to my eye it was so lovely.
I didn't go mad pace wise and kept it easy and in the end I finished exactly - more or less - as I thought I would in 2 hours 12 minutes - just an hour behind the winner Kenyan superstar John Muriithi who was dressed as a rabbit. I'm chuffed with that and especially with the fact that out of the 12,500 who ran I finished in the top half (5268th).
It was all worth it for the feeling you get crossing the line.
And man did that pastry taste good afterwards.

Blogging's harder than running

I've not been very good at keeping up with the blogging but I've stuck to the running schedule. It's been great actually. Roughly I've been running about 21 miles a week. Sometimes, when I've been out at 6 in the morning I've wondered what the hell I'm doing but mainly it's been great.
The big thing about running for me is discovering a new side to north London. Running on Hampstead Heath is just wonderful, especially on a nice sunny Sunday morning. At times you feel like you could be right out in the countryside and then you get a view of the skyline. I just love it and I've still only explored a bit of it.
Whatever happens on Sunday I'm going to carry on running. I've already thought about events I might enter next to keep me motivated but mainly I just like it.
Well, Sunday and the big half marathon is getting very very close now. I feel pretty sure I'm going to make it round now but I've got lots of niggly stupid nervy worries that I realise are totally pathetic - like , I work up at 5 this morning in a panic that I'd missed the start - and it's four days away.
oh jeez...