Half Marathon
This is a boring blog post for the none runners, but I felt it was owed a post as it took some mental strength to finish it! Oh my god, it had to be the hottest day of the year. I admit that having two glasses of wine at my friend's birthday party the night before was probably not my brightest idea, but I suffer from FOMO (I was proud that I stuck to 2, to be honest, and got home at 11 pm). Tell me that's discipline!?
So today I woke up far too early as our flat has white curtains and glass windows so at 4 am it wakes us up every day. I love it, but this is definitely the drawback. I got to Richmond Park nice and early and left Hayley in bed for a little while longer as she had more wine than me and needed the extra sleep. Before I set off, I must have done about 5 wees. When I arrived, I needed a wee again but no number 2. The toilet queue was getting bigger and bigger before the race was going to start, and I called it the 'nervous poo queue'. Well, I decided to join that queue with 9 mins to go (damn it). Anyway, it was getting to 2 mins till the race began, and I was still nowhere near the front, so I decided to use the out-of-order toilet! 😂
So off we set, and I was hot, but I was coping for the first 10k, I was at the pace that I wanted at that point, and I passed Hayley, and she was texting on her phone, and I had to shout at her for attention. (To be fair, she caught me all the other times I went past her). Then I just couldn't take the heat; I started walking on and off and made a friend. She was next to me for most of the race up until this point, and we bonded over how hot we were. She was aiming for a faster time than me (she was skinny and had less fat to carry), so I said she could be my pacemaker. She wanted to talk through the race and started asking where I was from and if I would like to run at weekends. My reply was I need to conserve energy; sorry, I don't talk. My music was even accidentally turned off at this point, and I couldn't figure out how to put it on, yet I still didn't speak to her … I needed all the energy I could get (I passed her a bottle of water, though). We stuck together for about 7k, and I think she pushed me not to walk - however she drifted off, and then I couldn't help but walk on and off. Saw a couple of people had collapsed on the side, and a guy even had the defib on him - this persuaded me to slow down a bit. (My mum and dad called me the day before to beg me not to do it in this heat. Surely it's too much for your new mental state of mind, they said haha).
I have to credit this guy who was a spectator around one bend, and he motivated all of us. Every time we passed him, he had his hand out; he shouted, 'Everybody would do it if it were easy,' 'You are machines, ' and was like your number 1 fan. I think I even sped up around him to impress him and live up to 'machines'.
Towards the end, it was a mental battle, and I told myself in my head - run for 1 minute, and you can walk for 10 seconds. I really felt it in my legs, head and my breath. I was far too hot, and when I was taking the water, I was just throwing it on me mostly rather than drinking it. I think that's the least enjoyable run I've ever done, to be honest (my feet need a makeover). I also didn't look at my time and just kept telling myself to run my race... I did it in 1 hour and 57 minutes which isn't the time I was aiming for, but I'm going to let it go. The money is still all going to charity. The heat was bloody intense and only motivated me to do it again (no promises). I've always been too hard on myself, but it's an ok time, and I'm ok with it, and I treated myself to a bottle of wine and currently feel dizzy, sick and have the worst headache ever.
xBx
P.S. It was just about worth it - we had minuty rose and a lot of chips with ketchup!