My very first half marathon loomed and at 3am on race day I'm wide awake. I was thinking back to the previous year when as a spectator I vowed I would be running it the following year and that my time would be competitive. Cometh the man........
So I've blogged a little about training for this years marathon etc, this can be found in the mix of my old blogs in the 'Legacy 5k' and 'Running Photography'. I'm guessing like a lot of other runners out there, we all have a fitness/running story.
I felt ill during the early hours, panicking over lack of sleep, what to eat pre-run and was I up to the job. The fact I'd been training for almost a year and getting in about 30 miles a week made no difference, I was still bricking it.
My fears and anxiety faded away once I got to the park. Seeing such a huge amount of runners and spectators just washed all my fears away. Everyone seamed to be enjoying the moment and getting on with their run prep, so I did the same.
I shall avoid going into detail about my experience during the very long 13.01 miles across South Warrington. I was lucky in some respects that I had run parts of the the course during this year and did my homework on how to approach and run my first half marathon.
The best advice I got came from a mate. Sprint train, this I did lots of during the run-up to the marathon. It worked for me and I always felt stronger the day after. Combined with a good diet and minimum booze during the week of the marathon I trained well in the hope to prove to myself I could put in a competitive time.
Support from Marshall's, the public and other runners was overwhelming and I'll repeat what everyone else is saying, the people helped us all through each hard run mile.
Yes then, I did put in a great time for my first marathon ( see first pic ) and the whole experience was a really great one. I felt liberated after the run, nackered but liberated from the un-healthy and some-what lazy individual I had been for the previous 40 years on this planet, it was a good feeling.
So to cut a long blog short it was a job well done. Not only by the 'self congratulating me' but a great job done by all the other runners, no matter what time someone had finished in. It was well organised and even though it's up against The Great North Run it attracted great crowds and some quality runners.
For me, now? I need to recover and find a running club to join so if anyone knows of a good Warrington club then drop me a line here in the comments box.
Cheers for reading.
Big thanks to Nez for the pics and support!
Big thanks to Nez for the pics and support!
