I am going to write and post this today. I wondered if I should leave it a couple of days and see if I can write a more positive post but sometimes it is good to show the other side. This is a tale of two parts of the same day and how and good event can turn rotten.
Firstly the start of the day couldn’t of been better. I got a text from mfamilias To say she had made it and she was waiting by the info tent, I hotfooted over there and saw her waiting for me. It is a strange feeling waving at a complete stranger you have never met in person but having the feeling you have know each other for years. The next hour was taken up by chatting, chatting and more chatting, it was brilliant. So nice to put a face to the name and lots of fun.
Then our wave started moving forward, we said our good lucks, as I knew. mfamilias Would need to get going through the mass of crowds and I needed to get myself tucked in to the side. Even if I wanted to get off to a flying start I couldn’t as it was very congested at the start line. The first 4km were fantastic, my cheeks were aching from all the smiling, I felt strong and confident. I had waited 2 years to do this event and here I was.
Then between 5-6 km it all changed a bit. I started with a blister on my left ball of my foot and my glutes started hurting a bit. Between 6-7 km I was starting to struggle. By 7km I realised that I was only third of the way through the event, mentally that hit me like a tonne of bricks. By this time each step I was taking was hurting somewhere. Looking back today I have no idea where I found the resolve to keep going by 17km I was counting down each 0.5km and fighting back the tears. By the time I went past the finish line I was in floods of tears. My best friend who met me took care of me she put lovely woollen gloves on my cold fingers because I couldn’t use them at all, she put a hot cup of tea in my hands and set me off home in a taxi right to my front door.
I was struggling last night. By 8pm I was feeling uncontrollably thirsty. It took me half an hour to realise I was not going to drink enough to cover the thirst as it was electrolyte imbalance, salted, diluted orange Juice and a good multi vitamin and minerals sorted that out. I have a blister that covers the whole of the ball of my left foot and my muscles feels like they are shot today. I fell asleep without taking my thyroid meds last night so I have a headache. I can’t believe I am going to turn myself around and do it all again in 11weeks.
So my time 3:31.
My thoughts. Out of the last nine weeks of training 6 of them were impaired, 3 with flu and 3 looking after my Dad. I am not as fit as I used to be. It is one year on 9th March since the kidney donation, I haven’t got back to full fitness yet.
Hehe it was not the comeback I was hoping for but as my best mate said you did it!
Happy healthy running to you all.
Rfc x.
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Realfoodieclub
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Gosh RFC you are certainly made of strong stuff to finish... you certainly earned that medal...... The mental determination to continue is exhausting and you must be utterly shattered today in every sense. You have had so much to cope with over the last year and as your best mate said, you did it.... huge well done and take good care of yourself this week.... XXX
Thanks Ju. I am shot today, can’t keep my breakfast down either, but will take it very easy. I think this medal will go at the top of list of. the hardest earned medal.😀.
Well done Rfc, again you have shown your true grit and determination!
Take extra good care of yourself and recouperate well. Don’t underestimate the emotional aspect of all you have been through over the past twelve months so be kind to yourself a while xxxx
Thank you. Yes, I think a lot of what was going on yesterday was a fight within myself, I was determined,come what may to prove I could do this and I probably wasn’t that ready. My electrolytes feel terribly out today, I dosent help that I am throwing up my refueling either. Couch day for me today, I think.
My goodness you are made of stern stuff! It's sad when such a triumph is actually a deeply unpleasant experience... see how it goes, it may improve with the mists of time! A really covetable medal you've earned there too.
Hope you feel much better very soon, sounds like your whole system will take a little while to settle and those ball of the foot blisters are *sore*.
Well done. I did a HM in Eastbourne yeaterday (my first) and I can testify that the last few Kms are tough. The weather was also quite awful to boot. Well done again, very funky medal.
The pain is temporary, but the glory will last forever!!
Well done on Your HM. Epsome salts in your bath and good food with rest the pain will heal quicker. Take care and bask In The joy that is your first HM 🥇.
Wow! It was a tough one, but you kept going. Thank you for sharing with us that it isn't all roses and sunshine. It will help those of us that are in a similar position of running a HM despite not feeling completely prepared. I know I'll be thinking about your grit and determination when I run mine later this month.
Thank you. I have always said you don’t do a HM lightly and I really thought it would be fine, I guess I was still believing my base line fitness was better than it actually is.
SaskAlliecat Rereading this this morning what I should of actually said was good luck for your HM, take it all in your own time and you will be fine 😀.
Thanks RFC. Mine isn't an organized event but a virtual run through virtualrunneruk. I'm not sure if that'll be a benefit or a detriment. I won't feel the pressure to go too fast because of other quicker runners and atmosphere, but I also won't have the atmosphere to help push through the last few km. That is why posts like yours help. I'll just have to think how you did it and persevered. Hope you're recovering well.
You made it to the finish line Rfc...what tremendous effort and strength of character that shows.
I've seen it said on here before, that its getting through the really tough times that shows your mettle, and to push through the pain and exhaustion like you did shows how brave and strong you are.
You so wanted to compete in that HM and you did! The medal is amazing and you fully deserve to be proud of yourself, and you will once you have recovered.
I hope everything starts to ease very soon and you begin to feel better.
Oh wow Rfc, so well done 👏, you are brilliant, I’m not sure I could have continued, but you did, you made it. The thought of that blister is making me wince..... rest good and proper now. Be proud, very proud of that bling, you’re no wuss lady, look what you did..💪🏅
Thank you. Oh that blister is going to take some time to heal I think. Every HM I have ever done I have got blisters. I had talc, pop socks and socks and still it happened, never does in training though.
Huge respect to you RFC. The mental and physical resolve you drew on to complete this race ran very deep and is a real inspiration. You have been tested and come out the other side. If I had a hat it would certainly be off to you.
I was thrilled to meet you, you are one gutsy lady. This forum is magic, creating links between people.
I wouldn't have lasted with a blister like that, you're nothing short of awesome. I hope it feels better soon. I hope we get to meet up again the next time I'm in the area
Thank you, it was so good to meet up, best start of a run I have ever had. Feeling so much better today, just a little ache in my right calf and blister healing. it really was the Lucozade. Already printed off my next training plan this morning ready to start in two weeks. By the way on Twitter they are asking us to send the shoe tags back as they thought we would be too cold at the end to have us standing around waiting for them to be taken off. there is a prepaid envelope that came in the pack.
Oh, a half marathon may be tough -but you are made of stronger stuff!! Rfc you are, as always, an inspiration and I salute you!...Just rest up well now please!😁x
Thank you, I am resting for the next two weeks then start again ready for 20th May. I am feeling so much better, it really was an intolerance reaction to the Lucozade.
What grit and determination. I am sorry the experience was not what you would perhaps have wished for but you showed yourself (again) to be made of very strong stuff.
Well done on your hard-earned medal, and I hope you feel better very soon.
RFC, I was there, too! Ìt was a tough run (those cobbles were killers). When the sun came out at the start, we thought we were going to have a great run, but as things progressed, it turned colder and despite running got very cold towards the end (I was fantasizing about a mug of tea from about 17k - Would have killed for one!). My friend and I ran well till the cobbles. She has a weak ankle and they just about finished her off. Well done You on getting round with blisters! I don't think I would have had the grit to keep going. In 11 weeks time, it will be a whole new ball game - you will ace it!
Thank you. It has done me so much good to read someone else's account of the weather because I just put it down to me not coping rather than there might of been external factors that were happening as well. The cobbles...... they will always go down in my history as the most embarrassing, it was then that the girl on stilts over took me as she moved on to the pavement and I couldn't keep up with her.
I saw her - awesome! We were roundly beaten by a rhino and a tractor, but were stoked that we managed to come in ahead of the Ghostbusters in their car. How those guys managed, I have no idea.
As your mate said Rfc - you did it, and I certainly admire you for doing so. That's an incredibly long way to go with a blister. Hope you are feeling better now and can appreciate your achievement in such circumstances and interrupted build up. Hopefully worth it for that very nice medal. Read your later post as well and have to agree why the need for sweeteners in an energy drink. Bizarre isn't it to just get blisters at events. I only have nausea problems at events but now feel that's probably adrenaline or something, but blisters are different. Very well done, rest up now and the next one will be better.
Thank you, I am feeling so much better that the main pressure must of come from the drink. The news today is that they are pushing for more sweeteners to be put in our food chain. yippee. The blisters I really don't know what to do, this time memory foam insoles. proper socks, pop socks and talc. I suppose the good news is only blistered on one foot rather than both, so I suppose that is a positive. Nausea must be difficult. I hope it goes soon after you start.
You are amazing, Rfc. I've just read your other post about the Lucozade and that makes it even more incredible - not only did you have the blisters etc but you ran this while being poisoned! Talk about grit and determination - you are awesome.
Rest up now and recover, and appreciate your stupendous achievement in the face of such odds.
Thank you. Now I am a day away I really feel like I was poisoned. I felt so ill yesterday I nearly rang the doctor for advice. I suppose because it was the first since the donation I was worried it was kidney related. It was only when Mr Rfc had gone to the pharmacy for advice on electrolytes that pharmacist couldn't find one without sweeteners in, including Sport in science Hi 5, then it dawned on me what had happened, checked the ingredients of Lucozade and it all made sense. An antihistamine later and I started coming round.
The first time I went to Arizona (a long time ago before I started running) and was staggered by the dry heat, a friend told me to keep drinking and drinking, and if I started to feel odd, to make my own recovery drink. She always carried with her small packets of salt and sugar from fast-food restaurants which she could add to water. I still follow her advice when I travel even now! It is weird that sweeteners are everywhere, with our heightened awareness of allergies and intolerances.
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I am hoping to see him at the GMR in May for the revenge match ! 
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