Woke up far too early this morning and had a huge bowl of porridge. Got to the start pen far too early and had to keep moving around to try to keep warm. Luckily found out that there were indoor toilets so spent the final half hour queuing indoors to warm up again and then back outside just after 8. I was surprised how many people there were - it took 25 minutes for us to reach the start line.
The route starts with a nice downhill section then through Princes Street gardens then on to the Royal Mile towards Holyrood Palace. I managed to keep to my planned pace, ignoring all the speedy people around me. After about 3 miles we came to the only real hill on the route which I managed to get to the top off without collapsing. The route then followed the coast but sadly the views were obscured by the fog that didn't clear for the rest of the day. The good thing was it kept the temperature down to around 10C which is perfect for me to run in, and there was a wind but not too fierce.
I was plodding along nicely until the 9 mile mark where you pass the finish line and carry on for a further 2 miles before turning back. Never has 2 miles felt so long - I was beginning to think I had ended up on the full marathon route by mistake. I found the last 2 miles very tough, I just ran out of energy and had to walk quite a bit in between short bursts of running. The crowd helped massively, lots of strangers calling my name and telling me I was doing great.
I finally turned and saw the finishing line looming in front of me and managed to run down the home straight and smile for the cameras. I was very pleased with my time of 2 hours 37 minutes, a bit less than my predicted time. All in all a wonderful day and a huge sense of achievement. That's me on the left, along with my 2 training partners.
Written by
jacky-f
Half Marathon
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Congratulations. I hate passing the finish and having to go on further, it really isn't fair! Well done on finishing - and quicker than expected is a bonus 👍👏🍾🎉
How cruel to have you run past the finish line - so tough mentally! But well done on your first HM - I am sure you are still buzzing and will be for days! It's so warm down here in the south - so glad that you had a perfect temperature to run in. Great picture too - well done to all three of you!🙂🏃🏽♀️🏃🏽♀️🏃🏽♀️🏅
Well done! I had a similar thing on my HM, we had to run past the football stadium where the finish was (and could hear the PA and razamataz going on in there) only to head up into the woods for a "hilly" last 2.5k! It's a killer, so well done again!
Congratulations! And I really appreciate honest and "real world informative" posts like this. It is inspiring and helpful to those of us who really do find running tough on our bodies - it shows it can be done in a way an "I crushed it" post or article or retelling never can.
I only even attempted trying the 5k distance because I could identify with someone who wrote that they had graduated - ' even though I still feel like my lungs are on fire'.
Thanks John, what a lovely comment. I always find running hard no matter the distance so it was a massive sense of achievement to complete it. My next run is a 10k race for life and I am already fed up with people telling me it will be easy as it's "only" 10k.
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that last section was a trial wasn’t it 
LLHM, First Half Marathon 
First official half marathon 
My first (solo) half marathon 😁🥳🤸🏼♀️
My first half marathon
