...consider yourself smashed!
Well, I did it, folks - my first HM is in the bag!
The faffage list proved itself invaluable last night and this morning and I still managed to leave the house without my Lucozade. I was so nervous that I struggled to eat breakfast, only managing a few mouthfuls of porridge before making my way to York Racecourse.
I had my usual panic about coming last when I glanced around and everyone else in the room looked like a ‘proper runner’ and had to give myself a bit of a talking to. Then the queues for the ladies’ toilets were as daft as usual so I snuck upstairs to one that nobody else knew about - the advantage of being on home turf!
The event was really well organised and before I knew it, we were being guided towards the start line. I hovered between the sub 2:15 and sub 2:30 pens because I was officially aiming for 2:20 but secretly hoping for 2:15. At this point, I got chatting to a few really lovely people, which definitely helped me shake off the nerves.
And then we were off. The weather was as good as we could have hoped for, given the title of the event, and the course was flat and fast - so it’s popular with experienced runners hoping for pbs. It’s also run by the York Knavesmire Harriers, one of our local running clubs, and the whole thing is staffed by them. It makes for great organisation and support because they’re all runners too and the marshalls were marvellous even though they must have been frozen.
I usually struggle with the first 5k of any race but I felt pretty comfortable today, hovering just above my intended pace. I fell into step with two hilarious gentlemen and a lovely lady from Newark, who were all aiming for around 2:10 - a bit faster than I’d planned but I was feeling good so I stuck with them.
The route took us out past the airfield at Acaster, which was where I did my very first C25k run back in May, terrified that someone would see me. This made me reflect on how far I’ve come since then, not just in taking on 13 miles but running in a crowd of 1,700 other people!
I have lots of friends who are Harriers and it was lovely to bump into them all at the water stops and hear them shouting my name. At around six miles, I could feel a slight twinge in my left hip but I took a couple of ibuprofen and resolved to get through it. A couple of miles later, the pain had gone completely.
By mile 8, I just knew I could smash this and I was really starting to enjoy myself, cracking terrible jokes and joining in with the banter from other runners. At 10 miles, I spotted my husband and Sasha, my daft, fuzzy German Shepherd, who’d surprised me by coming along to support. Sasha desperately wanted to come with me and cried when I left her behind but I was able to throw my gloves, which had been driving me mad, at my husband.
So. Just three miles to go. Someone made the inevitable comment about a parkrun. Feeling good, I upped my pace a fraction. I’m not sure what happened to the markers between miles 11 and 12 but it was the longest mile I’d ever encountered! It seemed to stretch on forever. I heard a woman shout to her friend to put her shoulders back and lengthen her stride slightly, without pushing any harder. Sounded sensible so I did it too. And then then before I knew it, we were ascending the only hill - a small road bridge, and we were almost home and dry.
I chanted my mantra, inspired by Oldfloss, as I churned out the last 800m: “light as air, kiss the ground, light as air, kiss the ground...”
And then we were there. And I was crying. And someone handed me a banana. And I forgot to stop my watch. And then I did. And it said 2:08. And I didn’t believe it so I cried some more.
According to resultsbase, it was actually 2:06:38 - so I’m pretty sure I must have missed out part of the course somewhere.
What a day! Thank you to everyone who offered invaluable advice and support. And if you ever get the opportunity to enter the Brass Monkey, go for it!
LLHM, First Half Marathon 
Blenheim Half Marathon Done! 
Coast Half Marathon race report 
Half marathon
Hastings Half Marathon run report
