Last Sunday I ticked off another goal on my running and triathlon journey…. My first Half Marathon – and a heavy one at that as the final official distance was 14.1 miles.
Two of my friends were kind enough to buy me an entry to the SVN Charity Donkey Challenge for my 40th Birthday present. SVN (Saxon, Viking & Norman) run regular 6 hour events – as long as you complete at least 1 lap you are counted as a finisher and get a medal. But after that initial lap, you can run as many laps as you like in the 6 hour window to complete up to an ultra run. The 3 laps I did on Sunday earned me a half marathon win.
I had planned to Jeff my half – run 90 second, 60 seconds walk – it’s a tried and tested method and that held fairly well for the first 1.5 laps. Well…. Apart from a nice hill on the way, I take solace in the fact 99% of people walked that stretch too. The first lap was fun…. The second lap was less so….third lap painful but my friends Catherine and Steph joined me for the last few miles.
Boredom is also a risk when running such a long distance – and I made sure I loaded my phone up with plenty of music, audiobooks and podcasts. I had jokingly suggested to a friend that she listen to the My Dad Wrote A Porno podcast when she ran the London Marathon a few weeks ago and it worked for her. So I made sure I had a few seasons downloaded. And hell did it work – I laughed and giggled my way around the 14 miles.
My watch has reliably informed me that I’ve knocked just shy of 9 minutes off my 10km time, coming in at 01:21:12 and my half marathon time was 03:18:08. The “heavy” half time on the watch was 03:38:58.
I am apparently now suffering from the post-run delusion that I’ve heard of by looking at what one to do next… just a few hours after cursing the footpath, my body, my friends for entering me and anyone else who lapped me.
