Mile seven is always a struggle for me in this race, im not sure if it’s the shapr turn, or the people cheering at Appleton Roebuck, but its been a walking point for me several times.i desperately wanted to walk byt now, and my guts kept threatening to make me stop.Somehow, I carried on, but now people were overtaking me and I was outside nine minute miling.I knew things were going to get worse, as I hadnt reached ninety minutes yet(always a bad point for me in any race).
I kept telling myself that bad patches pass, and they did, only to return again a few minutes later.By now I had no idea what sort of time I was going to do, but was just determined not to walk.I don’t walk in half marathons anymore.
Eventually, finally, I saw the ten mile marker and vaguely realised that I was one or two minutes inside my pb (1.28 something, don’t ask).
This shoild have been a high point for me.I tried telling myself that I now had less than thirty minutes to go but in truth I had no idea how I was going to finish at all, I felt AWFUL.I struggled on, slowing down when the cramps got too bad, just willing myself over each point two of a mile(yes, I was fixated on the bloody garmin)
Everyone else seemeed to be speeding up on the home straight.I had absolutely nothing left and wasn’t sure how I was going to do the last two miles.
As I struggled up the hill to the bridge I reasoned that I might still get a sub two, but as there is a bit of a clinb at mile 12, knew that I couldn’t do a pb.
The marshals and fetchies were lovely, and very vocal in their support and encouragement, but I could barely hear by this point.
I will never know how I did not walk at mile 12, but I didn’t and eventually the interminable road was at an end, and we turned off to the racecourse.By now I had forced myself to stop looking at my garmin.My guts were agony, and I didn’t want the psychological additional stress of knowing how far off my pb I was.
I managed a strong, though not a sprint finish, and my first reaction on seeing 1.57.46 was disappointment.
Could I have pushed a bit harder for a few more seconds?
Well, no, I couldn’t.
Sorry about too much information, but lets just say I had bloody diarrhoea post race.
Literally.
I didn’t need anything else to tell me I had pushed my body hard enough then.
God help me, sitting on the loo, I was already thinking that I had another two halves to do in March, plenty of time for a pb, and that I should be pleased with a sub two(anything to take my mind off the pain in my guts).
It took me about two hours to feel normal again, and sorry I didn’t go to the pub, and sorry if I was short with any of you lovely people who spoke to me post race, but OH was in a grumpy strop and we had to go, and my brain just wasn’t working.
On the journey home, I had just got my head around what had happened, and was feeling quite pragmatic about everything when a mate texted me my paddock Wood time form last year.
I did a pb by one whole bloody second-LOL!
Now that I am home, it would seem I have also done a 12 second 10k pb
Off to find a 10 miler and a 10k to do soon, and lets se what happens in March
The splits
1.8.30
28.25
3.8.33
4.8.43(slow at water station)
5.8.49
6.9.02
7.9.01
8.9.08
9.9.15
10.9.18
11.9.17
12.9.29
13.9.11
