Saturday 4 July 2009

My half marathon

Good morning, walk all done and dusted, didn't get any shuteye and didn't need it. There was a great party atmosphere last night, over 500 women most in their night wear or fancy dress, me in my pink nightie, it was a lot of fun.

I decided to walk alone because I wanted to push myself hard and do it in the shortest time I could. We set off at 10pm from the football ground, and I was in the second bunch of thirty to get off. The pace was quite fast throughought, we had two curcuits of six miles each, with a twiddly bit in the middle making it a total of thirteen miles. The second circuit was the same as the first, in reverse.

There was a lot of car horn hooting going on as we looked quite a spectacle, a lot of flashing lights on heads, mine were fastened to the waist band of my bumbag. Plenty of watering holes dishing out bottles of water and chocolates, and marshals, ambulances, St John's, as far as I could see no one needed their assistance but it was comforting to know they were there.

The conditions were ideal, dry, slightly warmish, although my skin felt cool I was comfortably warm inside. I thought my feet might give me problems but they didn't, I wore an old pair of trainers, a bit like a comfy pair of slippers. I even managed to run part the way round the second circuit, overtaking a lot of young ones. On the last straight I could see the three hour looming, with seven minutes to go I had one last push, determined to be within the 1am deadline I set myself. I know it was supposed to be a fun walk, but I do like some element of competition, even if it is just competing against my own boundaries. I received my medal at 1am as I checked back in at admin.

Breakfast was provided inside the football ground and I opted for the bowl of fruit as opposed to the bacon butty. I sat for ten minutes looking out over the pitch, imagining the roar of the crowd as a goal is scored, only ever hearing a real roar from the Tesco car park across the road. With my goody bag in my hand I got back in my car and drove the ten minutes home. Here is my medal.
Today I feel great, pleased with my achievement, and looking forward to the day ahead, I'm off to the Scrapstore soon to pick up what I need for the stand tomorrow. Have a good weekend.

3 comments:

  1. Bravo !!

    [I should have said, "Welcome to the Nightie shift"]

    ;))

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congratulations! What a great medal!

    Amy
    www.runnerslounge.com
    blog.runnerslounge.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well done you! That is such an achievement!

    ReplyDelete

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