After months of 4:30am alarms, swearing at myself for being an idiot for thinking I could do it, getting soaked, frozen, barked at, shouted at etc etc this 48 year old Norfolk boy has finally achieved the formerly (in his eyes) unachievable!
The paranoia of the pre race bag packing was something to behold but I guess that's normal for debutant excitable long distance event people. I arrived at the Norfolk Showground in plenty of time, 8:40 for a 10:30 start 😵, and on entering the site suddenly realised the enormity of what I was taking on. My brain switched to training mode, apart from the game of football I had with my boy, and so I managed to calm myself down and soak up the atmosphere.
At 10:30 we were off. It took 3 minutes to get to the start line! My family were at the line shouting me on which probably made me go Forrest Gump for a while as my pace was far too fast, though strangely it didn't feel like it. The first mile is in the showground then out into the country lanes and surrounding villages just to the Western edge of Norwich. The villagers were out in force shouting and clapping, the odd cowbell dinging too!
After about 3 miles I'd settled into a good rhythm which, though still a bit quicker than I expected, was comfortable. At that point I gained a running partner who kept with me for the next 7 miles. That was a fantastic distraction from the job at hand as we chatted and encouraged each other. In this small world of ours it's amazing that, in a field of over 2000 competitors and 25 miles from home, this lady lives a few streets away from me in Beccles.
At the 11 mile mark the pace and heat hit me. The water stations and Lisa were Godsends up to that point but boy oh boy was it hard work after that. A hill, which I can only describe as evil, loomed large. Now you may believe that Norfolk is flat, not all of it is I can assure you! That would have been bad enough at 2 miles but at 11 it was torture. After finally scaling that the final mile and a half was back in the showground. The sound of the tannoy naming runners as they finished spurred me on and the signs saying 400 metres then 200 metres gave me an extra burst. The 13 mile marker made me whoop and turning the corner onto the 100 metre finishing straight I found that I was on my own. The tannoy man shouted 'and here comes Andrew Huggins, or Huggy to his mates' the cheering crowd and a few relatives I wasn't expecting made me feel olympian, waving and grinning! Over the line arms aloft, my wife and 3 little 'uns just beyond the line copped a very sweaty embrace before I grabbed my bling, goody bag, water and banana!
My time of 2 hours 31 minutes 25 seconds was bang on my training and that despite it being a warm late morning /early afternoon whereas my training has all been early morning. Over the moon with that! 😁
Anyway, that's my rambling done, thanks for reading, thanks for your superb support and, after a bit of a rest, on to the next challenge!
Best
Lardofale /Huggy 😉
Written by
lardofale
Half Marathon
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Sitting here, this has me a tad tearful, imaging you running on that last bit, towards your family... They must be so, so proud of you and you should be , rightfully, and deservedly proud also.
Very, very well done indeed... and just what I needed to read at this moment in time
Sounds like it all came together perfectly, except the flamin gert ‘ill! Why do they do that! Pure torture aren’t they when they come right at the end 😤😫
Thank you! It was a fantastic experience, i'll definitely do it again. I hope your Brighton run went well, I have a new respect for full marathon people after doing the half! 😵👍👏👊
Congratulations a milestone in your running career, one which I have said I will not do. I have done 10 miles and that was fine but half marathon and marathons not for me thank you. Full of praise for you though Sir.
Thank you! I certainly understand that! I trained up to 12 miles deliberately leaving the last mile and a bit for the event. Boy oh boy that was tough! A great experience though.
Totally understand the desire to do it again. My first half was sort of begrudging because I had to cover the distance as part of training for a marathon I'd already signed up for, but I've done three more since for fun, knocked over half an hour off my time in the process and now they're my favourite distance because they're a challenge but not as demanding of your free time as training for marathons. Enjoy continuing your running journey! Literally, ha.
Amazing post LoA! You worked so hard for that it must have felt pretty special to finally snag it! Really well done. Bit sadistic of them to throw the hill from hell in at the very end, but you managed it. You should be really proud.
Thank you! It's been 3 and a half months of sweat and toil but I enjoyed almost every moment of that culminating in an amazing experience! I only took up running at the beginning of June 2017 so this was a mega moment! 😁 Very proud and like all Norfolk men now afraid of steep hills 👍
Loved reading that race report! Congratulations, and here's hoping there are many more for you! You and your family must be very proud of your achievement. Well done!
Thank you! I certainly hope this is the first of many, however, proud of my achievement as she is, the wife isn't so keen to hear the 4:30am alarms......! I'll get my best 'egg shell treading' shoes on when I next broach that subject!
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