I am very pleased to say that I completed the Brighton Half Marathon on February 20th in 1 hour 53 minutes! *woot*
Until the day itself I had never run the distance, and in fact the furthest I had ever run during training was 8 miles. I guess this it was this fact that made me most nervous on the big day itself. I left home in plenty of time to make it down to the start line, this move wasn’t necessarily the best idea. It meant I had far too much time hanging around at the start line, building nerves and adrenaline. I elected to stand in the ’2 hour’ enclosure and their we waited and waited finally the countdown got closer to the 9am starting gun. We looked at the clock 5, 4, 3, 2……1 then nothing. Not the ‘Chariots of Fire’ head down slo-mo start I had been expecting but perhaps a little 4 foot shuffle. Not dissimilar to the shuffle at a music festival when a band comes on. It was a full seven minutes before I crossed the start line. My plan to run listening to the entire White Album suffered a set back when I was already on track 3 ‘Glass Onion’ before my time officially started.
I had previously been advised that the temptation for every novice in their first race is to go like the clappers and overtake everyone in their path. I held back and took a gentle pace, trying to enjoy the spectacle of running through the usually overcrowded roads. It felt good to ‘take over the streets’ and reminded me of demonstrations that I had been on, albeit in the case a lycra clad self-interest health kick demonstration.
The miles ticked away and it was entertaining to see a few runners dressed-up in the fancy dress. Pingu and Mr Incredible to name but two. In all honesty I have previously been sceptical of people that feel the need to scream ‘look at me’ and perhaps even worse ‘look at me, I am doing this for charity’ and then another level ‘look at me, aren’t I wacky, and I am doing this for charity, crazy eh?’. But as I was making my way round the course it was a welcome distraction from the internal thoughts of, how far is left to go? am I going to make it? when is the next mile marker? am I going to be last? should I have done more training? am I running to fast? am I running to slow? where the hell is the next lucozade, I am parched? So good on ‘em I say.
The White Album unsurprisingly came and went, but I had forgotten the next album I had selected for the playlist. As I was rounding the Hove Lagoon Bon Jovi kicked in and gave a huge burst of energy geeing me up and whisking me back down the seafront to the finish line. Let it Rock indeed.
Well that concludes my resolution for 2011. I cannot say I am desparate to get out there and run another half marathon. Although I could be persuaded to enter the full marathon maybe 2012?