I speak to you from the comfort of my sofa, glass of port in hand, having just eaten a chicken salad wrap.... No, I know I shouldn't be eating rubbish and drinking however I am finally relaxing and enjoying the look of my new medal.
I took most of last week easy ready for my half marathon on Sunday, Tuesday I completely messed up my interval session, Thursday I did an easy 30 minute run before work and Saturday I went for an easy 15 minute run to warm the legs before Sunday. Only it wasn't that easy as I ran my second best mile!
Making some comparisons:
I decided to try to re shoot the same pictures taken on our first day training day back in December to show the difference now:
Sunday - Race Day
Having not got any sleep the night before due to inconsiderate loud music, hearing the alarm at 6.30am was not enjoyable. Still, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready, both my fiance Rob and I were running, so after we had breakfast we set off. I was driving, and luckily we got there in good time considering the thick sheet of fog that had descended over the M1.
We had a look around the Adidas shop, the charity village and visited the toilet on many occasions before we were called to make our way to the start pens. Rob the sub 2 hour and me the over 2 hour. I felt a bit lonely weaving in and out of all the people until I bumped into a lady I chat with on Twitter called Sarah. It was really nice to chat about our training and expectations.
Before long we were all shuffling forward, and I could see the start line, people started to run, but I refused until I hit the start mat. I started my watch and off I went moving over to the side of the track so I wouldn't get in the way of the faster runners.
A quick look at my watch told me I was running too fast, so I started to slow down, I went from 9.2km/h down to 8.1 which was still too fast but I felt I was going really slow. I thought that my watch was playing up, so I carried on and didn't bother looking at it again until I had passed the 3 mile mark and wanted to check on my 5K time... It was 36.11, oh dear, the fastest I have ever done 5K was in Oct 2015 and was 36.49, I had never been close to that since (generally around 39-41 minutes) so I knew I was going to regret pulling it off right at the beginning of a half marathon and I was right!
I had set my watch to just run rather than setting timed intervals like I do on my training running, yet another mistake, as I had no structure to my running or recovery times and I had no idea when to take my GELS.
I made it to 10k in 1:18:24 still too fast and I felt it,, I was exhausted. By this time it had also got really warm, the sun was shining so I decided just to walk and enjoy the experience whilst I rested up. I took a selfie and updated Twitter and Facebook.
At some pint during my 12th km I came across a toilet and decided to stop and remove my long sleeve top as I was getting too hot. By the time I had removed everything then put it all back, went for a wee, and then redid my hair (becuase this is very important during a race)I decided I was ready to carry on running.
I saw Rob, his Dad and his Dad's partner at about 16km (he had finished in 1:38:50). I gave him all of my dead weight (long sleeve top, phone, belt, bottle) so that I could speed up to the finish.
I rounded the corner in good spirit and with a second wind, thinking just a Park Run left I was confident I would get sub 3.
About 18km an ambulance went flying past me, making me jump up a grass verge, it may have been this what caused my dreams to fade or just bad luck but a really bad pain in my knee stopped me dead in my tracks.
After screaming a fair few obscenities at my knee I tried to walk it off, I was close to the St Johns Ambulance but was scared they wouldn't let me carry on and there was no way I wasn't going to finish so close to the end. I got some lovely support from two ladies who spurred me on for a while, but I told them to go ahead as I was slowing them down.
I didn't even have my phone to call Rob and ask him to come and help me, and it felt very lonely walking the last couple of km before the home straight.
When I turned a corner I could see him and he could see I was struggling and came and held my hand and walked along with me. My knee had stopped hurting at this point and I was about 130 meters from the finishing line, I picked up my pace and started to jog on, I heard Rob shout 'DONT LET THE DINOSAUR BEAT YOU!' (a man wearing a very large cage looking dinosaur suit who was some way in front of me.) I started to pick up my pace but so did he, I didn't think I was going to do it, I ran as fast as I could and just pipped him to the finish line!
I could barely walk back to my car after, and was very grateful my car is semi automatic when we hit stop/start traffic all along the M1. I don't think i really got to celebrate it that night as I hurt too much, and just wanted a bath, food and bed.
Last night I went for an easy 2k just to ease the legs, and today I have taken a rest day as I have a sore throat and am still tired! But finally it is sinking in what an achievement I made.
FBB xx
well done Elle , you must feel on top of the world . and hey you didn't get beaten by the dinosaur. ( I got beaten by a hot dog on my first 10k , humiliating, lol) now recover and keep going. you are motivating me to keep training . I managed 5k on sunday in 43 min as part of 10k training ( ok a little short of half marathon) but none the less I felt proud of myself because I have really struggled more than I could have imagined trying to get running again, and doing half the distance makes it all feel possible.
ReplyDeleteI joined a running club ( beginners section) on sat and omg I realised how slow I was as half a mile and I was gasping for breath and insisting I needed a walk break . I will keep going though as the one thing I do struggle with is always running alone , or with the dog. problem is few runners are able to run as slow as me . How do you deal with that?
Hi Ladybugw,
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with being beaten by a hot dog, Piglet quite comfortably ran past me! And my partner who runs marathons in 3:44:00 has had various bears run past him even at his speed!
Well done for managing 5k, that is a fantastic achievement, and it was the base I wanted to step up from when I started.Be very proud of yourself!
I am still not 100% sure it has sunk in just how far I have gone, its amazing as you start to get further and further what once seemed so far doesn't anymore. I don't mean I would now say that 5k, 10k is nothing its so short because it isn't, but what I mean is that when I come back from a 13 mile/3 hour run, I don't feel like I was out for 3 hours or have gone 13 miles (unless I have raced it and then I know exactly how far it was inch by inch!) Do you get what I mean? You can sit at home and work out for example (with my LSR) I am currently running up the river to St Margaret's and back, this is a couple of towns on and when you think about driving there it seems so far away and you would never believe you could run there and back, but actually when you do it didn't seem that far..
I have always run on my own except at races, I cant run and talk as I get too out of breath, but I have said I will join a running club once I have done London so I keep up my training. I normally listen to music or an audio book on my Ipod. Just take it at your own pace and split your runs into run/walk and build them up. Start with something like 20 minutes at 5mins jog 5 min walk and then build up the run by a minute each week but keep the walk at 5 min recovery. Dont gulp water as this was a mistake I made to start with and although you need to keep hydrated too much water is just as bad, so little sips.