firstly im not very elequent so its going to be a very short and sweet post ,
needless to say i was very nervous as its my first marathon , not only that but there is no support on the route that was planned as its up and back of a old disused railway line there was the odd dog walker and people in new trainers avoiding the mud but like i said no support lol , mostly the dogs walkers were grumpy and had the dogs on extendable leads making for tricky marathon running 
. i started off in the room with all the "real runners " in there fab gear and calf socks ( cant get any to go over my little fat legs so was quite put out lol ) .. so i left the room after signing in and getting my race number and decided to go watch the start of the parkrun instead as the marathon started from my home parkrun
i then went back up to the race breifing and listened very intently as we were told we would NOT have to run up the hill at the end ( thankyou jesus for that miracle ) as lindley the RD of challenge running did not have permissions ! i can literally say ive never been as happy to hear anything as i was to hear that
i started off in my normal slow and steady way and as usual everyone was pulling away very quickly but did i let that phase me ,,, no i did not , i was more than prepared to come last and as long as i got in under the 6 hr cut off i was gonna be a very happy bunny !
my first half was a very nice pace , very strong , very focused with a little bit of trepidation that i may not make the halfway 3 hr cutoff as i would have gotten pulled out there had i not , anyhow , made it to turn around in 2 hrs 40 mins with time to drink a nice fat coke get my water filled and back out again for the return journey home , again not too bad felt ok , was hydrating and feeding myself on the move as id trained to do and was feeling great , until my ipod just stopped working and then pretty much al i could think of was how i wanted it to be over as it was soooooo boring on the flitchway ! .. dirt path trees dirt path trees etc etc , i have trained with and without music on long runs , i have aways run solo on long runs so i know how to keep my head in the game , however my head was having none of it , so i started a run / walk plan , i dont know why as ive always run but i just didnt have it in me , around mile 22 ish i saw a girl i knew who had come out to " run with me " honestly i dont know if this helped me at all and i dont think it would have helped if i was feeing strong and going along beautifully either but thats by the by , so i was chatted to for miles whilst every now and then having a spurt of a run just to keep myself from falling under cutoff
round mile 26 my coach saw me and decided to motivate me to finish strong , i was ok but tbh i think i would have liked the race to be 3 miles shorter ,
i powered over the line to cheers and whoops from people who had come out to see me from running club , i have never felt so alive and so special as i did in that moment , i was hoping to finish in 5 59 59 because even 1 second over would have been a DNF , however i managed to finish in 5 47 21 and also scooped a prize for being DFL ( dead f@ing last ) .. WINNER !!!! i did finish strong , no one knew id struggled for a few miles i have a VERY good game face , that fact i could still run over the line was testiment to my training and my sheer bloodymindedness !
i did say i was only doing one marathon , apparently i chose pretty much the one no one else wanted to do but with my anxiety i think the stress of doing one further afeild would have got the better of me the travelling and the mega crowds so i picked a local one , and now im sat here thinking about signing up again next year ! thankyou C25k family for believing in me way back when , please let this report inspire 1 person to have a go at whatever you want to do , .. nothing to lose everything to gain XX
Well done Secksy 
Swansea half marathon race report
Tonbridge Half Marathon Race Report 😁
