How are you getting on with your training so far? The weather’s not been very helpful, has it!!?!! Tell us about it 😊
My half (Brighton) is coming up in less than two weeks, and last night I had two separate dreams about being late for the start!!!
We had a few people choose the 'what’s it like to run a half marathon?' question in our poll. Linda said, well that’s easy - all you need to say is “Awesome”! 😄 I thought I would put together a patchwork stream of consciousness of what I can recall of some of the half marathons I have run 😊
★ The day before
I’m resting my legs and we’re having the usual dance around what we’re going to do this evening - Saturday Night! I always feel like a bit of a heel for wanting to be boring, just eat pizza and get an early night. But really J doesn’t really mind (especially since pizza is his favourite food!), so we go out early, or find a film, he has beer and I have water. If we’re at home I sleep in the spare room - I say “sleep” but I don’t do an awful lot of it. But it’s fine, I’ve been keeping up with my Zs all week and I know adrenaline will get me through tomorrow!
★ The morning of
I give up trying to sleep and make a cup of tea, and some toast loaded with peanut butter and tomato slices - or a bagel and peanut butter if we’ve travelled. I have a bath or shower, and then I go through my faffage list™ on my phone and check I have everything I need. I put some warm clothes, chocolate milk, cash, in my little back pack - and make sure the bag-drop tag is on it, or it’s in the plastic bag they’ve sent. I get my running gear on, struggling a bit with the awkward race number pinned to my top. Eventually I’m all ready to go, and with a flicker of nerves I set off.
★ Getting to the start
Walking from home, or from where I’ve been staying, or from where I’ve parked the car, I join groups of people in running gear. We’re all going the same way with quiet intent, conversations muted, but as we arrive at the ‘Race Village’, or at the simple starting line, the volume increases quickly and excitement builds. There may be queues for a coffee van, and stalls selling energy bars, or for smaller events just a few earnest-looking marquees for bag-drop and last-minute registration. I’ll say “hi” to someone I recognise, or stand and take in the atmosphere alone - I’ll follow someone’s else’s cue and have a quick runaround for a warm up. Often there’s music blaring, maybe a local radio station has set up a stage, perhaps we are getting a warm-up with a local fitness guru. It’s a spring morning so it’s a little chilly, I’m hoping to keep hold of my outer garments for as long as possible, and I jump up and down as I queue for the loos and the bag-drop tent.
★ The race begins!
I surrender my bag and find the start line - maybe there’s a particular starting corral I was allocated months ago when I registered, or if it’s a smaller event perhaps I’ll just slide into the first space I can find. As everyone takes their place it gets crowded and the collective body-heat makes it feel really quite warm! I listen to conversations and laughter. Perhaps some people are speaking a bit too loudly and I move forward to a quieter spot.I see people stretching calves, quads, hamstrings and shaking out their arms and legs.
The radio announcer starts a countdown and we join in: 10, 9, 8...3,2,1, GO!!!! Confetti shoots over us, and my heart leaps into my throat as we start to shuffle forward. We move across the starting timer mat, under the inflatable arch, and I hear watches beep beep beep. We break into a jog, and then a run - heralded by a pipe band perhaps, or the speakers playing the theme from Chariots of Fire. We turn the first corner. I’m trying not to start off too fast, but I’m eager to run!
★ Onward!
We settle into a rhythm. Pairs and groups of people chat about anything and everything as they run. I exchange a quip, and salute the first mile marker. Spectators are thickly crowded, or largely absent, but anyone there is calling out words of encouragement to us. We hear the names of runners shouted out - read from their race number or printed running top. We pass groups of charity supporters - calling out when someone’s t-shirt marks them as one of the generous clan. Where the crowds are thinner, the sounds of running predominate - shoes on the road, breathing, gasped conversations, perhaps the rustle of a plastic cape, even music played from a phone (I’ll frown and move away). Somebody is giving someone a pep-talk; “I’ve just got my 10,000 steps!” laughs a woman. Where the crowds are bigger there is music, a child with a sign saying “Touch here for a power-up!” (trust me, it works), jelly babies and slices of orange offered on plates.
★ Water stations
We hit the first water station and dodge the cups or bottles that have been discarded in our path by those who have gone before us. Fresh cups of water are arranged neatly on tables, and volunteers young and old sweetly hold them out to us to take. I grab one with thanks and spill half of it as I try to drink on the run. Some of the water goes up my nose! Or perhaps I’m carrying my own drink for this race and I sail past the tables. Perhaps I have decided to slow down and walk, even stop for a second, to get a good drink. If there’s High 5 citrus on the table I’ll make a beeline for it - love that stuff!! I’ll have a plan in place for the water stations, and usually I’ll stick to it…
★ Carrying on
As we tick off more mile markers, the field spreads out and we have more space. Where earlier on I was needing to look down often to make sure I wasn’t about to trip over someone’s foot, now I have room to look around and savour the adventure I’m undertaking. I start to feel like I’ve been running for a while and slow my pace to take a breather. Someone overtakes me, and then a little while later I pass them. I may spend most of the half marathon seeing this person from time to time. There is a high possibility I will spot a man in an 'Um Bongo' t-shirt (yep, there he is!), and I will see multiple ‘Vegan Runners’ and members of the local running clubs. My stomach twitches and I fetch a handful of jelly babies from my running belt, or perhaps accept one from a tiny, confused looking child at a kerbside.
We pass through housing estates, enter quiet wooded areas, circle magnificent city landmarks, cross bridges, run up and down hills, go through tunnels, brave the weather, run down the middle of normally busy roads that have been closed for us. We pass the halfway point, and someone starts singing Bon Jovi. We get to the last 5K and a group of us paraphrase the band Europe in a rousing chorus of “the final parkrun”!!
As I get more tired my pace ebbs and flows. I see someone who is nursing a cramp at the roadside and call out - “you OK?”. They grimace and start hopping along behind me.
★ THE FINISH!
We pass the Mile 12 sign and I experience a mixture of feelings - so near and yet so far! I’m tired, but I pick up my pace… and then I slow down again. Someone is standing on a park bench and yelling encouragement. The crowds thicken as we approach the Mile 13 marker - we can see the finish line!!! Cameras are pointing our way as we surge forward through those soupy final metres. I sprint, or perhaps I have nothing left and just marvel as someone hurtles past me. Or I have been racing someone with grim determination round a final lap of a stadium, and refuse to let them beat me :D. I cross the final timing mat, raise my arms and grin - I am done! I’m out of breath and perhaps feel a little bit sick, but I’m so happy!!! I get a medal, a bottle of water, and a smiling “well done” from the volunteers. I stop for a second to take it all in, then I start to shiver so I go off to the bag drop and my warm clothes.
Happy running, cross-training, and resting everyone!
OMG roseabi that gave me massive butterflies! 🦋 I’m so very excited to run my HM and it’s getting ever closer! All those scenarios are relevant and I’m sure I’ll think of this post at times during my race! Thanks so much! 😀🏃♀️👍
Let’s hope the weather starts to calm down a bit soon. I’m doing a 10 mile training run tomorrow and it’s supposed to be slightly kinder. Hope so. 🤞
Thanks IP, I’m looking forward to it. Going to take my water bottle belt as that’s what I intend to use at Bath. I haven’t used it properly before. It carries 2 small bottles and I intend to have one with water and one with Tailwind. And jelly babies too of course! 🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️
Run done and it was virtually perfect weather. A slight headwind in places, but nothing compared to the last few days. Hope your run goes well too. 😀🏃♀️👊
That is pretty much a good of how it goes. But what about the toliet's the queues as we all need that just last wee.
My training has been going ok after not doing anything all of last week, which was naughty and then i didnt want to go out running on the sunday because of the storm so had a swim instead.
So had to do my long run on Saturday but needed to be places and my son really wanted to do parkrun so i did 5km at park run and then dropped my son off at his tuition for an hour. Which give me a chance to run for an extra hour so that was 8.5km of beuitful trail running.
So was .5km off my planned distance not ideal splittting the runs but i think as they where only 45 minutes apart it will have to do. 16km next week and then 18km and that will have to do!
Hello! Well, it's going ok thanks as I just did MY LONGEST EVER RUN!!! Time (1.41) and distance (10.5M). End of last week went awry, as I suspect it did for quite a few of us - supposed to do the Winter Run, so tapered slightly, didn't do parkrun and then of course didn't do the Winter Run either!! But despite the wind today, no choice but to get out there and get on with it.
Really interesting reading your description above! I keep trying to picture myself at the start of a big event - one of the reasons I wanted to do Winter Run before the Cambridge HM, just to do the whole "start pen" hanging around to go in waves thing. The only big event I have ever done is Race for Life. There's no start pen, no waves, no timing even, you just go en masse and jostle to get a spot!
I suppose the bit that makes me a bit anxious is having to be there so far ahead of your wave start time, and getting cold and the nerves building up. I am not running with anyone, so it's just me, freezing my bits off (if two years ago is anything to go by - nearly cancelled for snow).... but it will be what it will be. I'll get through it and I'll cross the start line, and hopefully, the finish line too. Less than 4 weeks to go!
That’s one of the bits I don’t relish at races, the hanging around before the start. But I always think of my running friends here and imagine them all with me cheering me round. It does help.
I hate it so i just choose small events where there are no pens or such malarky I want to pitch up and run. I don’t even like bag drop so try to just wear what I need 🙂
The best bag drop I have encountered was at Hastings last year. It was just a marquee we could walk into and drop our bags anywhere inside - no queue! I opted to carry my car key in my running belt to be on the safe side, but otherwise perfect!
A big event with pens is exactly the same as race for life - just some people head for one starting point jostle, others head for another! It isn't essential to get there way ahead of time really (especially if you know of an alternative loo stop) - not that thatvhas ever stopped me getting there stupidly early 🙄, but inevitably there is some waiting round. Try to soak up the atmosphere and visualise yourself breaking over the start line, one foot in front of the other just like all your training runs - nothing new there 🙂
I can’t believe how early some folk go to races 😃. On my local HM I was walking the dog at 7.20 am and my neighbour was already heading to the start line a 10 minute walk away. The race didn’t start til 9.30 🤷♀️ I asked him what he did in all that time Hang about and get cold 🥶. I thought I’d got the time wrong, and seeing him dressed in his gear and heading to the start, got me panicked 😁
Oooh, even I'm not that bad! A local one I'll rock up quite late, but I must admit I'm pretty early for big ones in London or somewhere I don't know which involve driving and parking on top of the usual - but even then not 2 hours early!
Check on the website to see if they collect throwaway clothes for charity - if they do, get yourself some warm cover-ups you won't mind discarding, and you can take them off right at the last minute. Also, it really does feel a lot warmer when you crowd together in the pens! And, if you're not worried about being fast, you can get away with turning up a bit later than they say and just squeezing in at the back - be sure to check if they have a closing time for the pens though!!!
That’s brilliant. Bath will be my first HM event so this is really useful, thank you! The one thing that always stresses me at races is the toilets, the queues, will I get there in time, etc. I’m thinking I might pop into a coffee shop or something first rather than join the no doubt massive queues there will be.
Training is going well and is still on track 👍 I’ve just booked my hair appointment for the week before so I am camera-ready 😀😂
I’ve dropped one race completely asI have not once managed to get to the loo before the start of the race as they won’t get sufficient loos. Also there is no hot drink or cakes.
Very interesting even though I not actually doing a HM event only the distance. I have now got my Just Giving page set up for people to sponsor our Ten paws HM, which is exciting, especially as we are over half way to out £target 👍 Even more exciting and amazing to me is I am about to get a running plan from a professional running coach, Jake Lowe, as he has just interviewed me for his podcast, Running with Jake, the PLODcast 😱as he heard about the challenge and wanted to know more.
His podcasts and FB videos are really great and inspirational if anyone wants to have a look would highly recommend them, and don’t worry mine, if it survives the cutting room floor, won’t be on there for ages yet 😂
Must admit I am really stunned by the whole episode, just replied to a post on FB and suddenly I am doing an interview 😱 but as my HM is going to be sponsored and as they say any publicity is good, I took a deep breathe and went with the flow. Way outside my comfort zone , but on the other hand someone wanted me to rabbit on about my running, which is a first 😂
Both my halves to date have been solo runs around my village in the evening, so don't quite fit your description, but it certainly tallies with the organised 5k/10k runs I've done. The only thing I would add, having done all my events in Edinburgh, is that there always seems to be just one more hill between me and the finish line...
I ran my first 13.1 miles at an event (the Milton Keynes Winter Half), and I felt that my routine training runs would therefore be less relevant and resonant 😊
I have added a little mention of hills to the post - actually my last half marathon event was extremely hilly!
But its also made me think of things.... i NEED a checklist! I'm sure there was a thread about this a while ago, which included stuff to do the day before too, like cut toenails!!
Oh gosh yes, toenails! And apply Vaseline (sorry guys!) under the zip of my sports bra. Had a bit of chafeage (sp?) there during one run and I don’t fancy the same happening during a HM! 😅
I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking about doing a checklist! I'm thinking of organizing my bag/gear /checklist(s) into pre-race, race and post-race just so I have all of the bits I need covered!
In some of the big events I've run - especially where I've fundraised - I've had a huge swell of emotion - complete with tears - sometimes more than once on the route. It may be as I settle into it around km 3 a sort of release of relief that I finally made it, or it may be some rousing music or a sign on someone's back ...
I also spend some of the time reflecting on the experience so far, as I'll tell it at the finish line or in my HU report 🤣.
Well, that's got me proper excited- so looking forward to that AWESOME finish line feeling 🎉
Oh yes linda9389 , I’m going to feel very emotional during the Bath Half as I’m running for the Alzheimer’s Society (Mum died with dementia in October), and I’m having the lettering For Mum on my race top. 🌸 💕
I'm glad you warned me - it would be frightfully embarrassing to meet you for the first time and be blubbing within seconds 😵. I'm a soppy thing at the best of times, but when I'm 'meeting my edge' as Adriene would say, I have nothing at all for self control 😂
Oh am fully expecting to be emotional. I sometimes get that way, depending what is going through my mind just when I am running on my own. When I finished my Race for Life the emotions were strong!
Race for life even had my daughter in tears. 1, she NEVER cries in public and 2. she was only spectating!!! But when a 10 year old boy crossed the finish line with 'I'm running this for my mum' she was broken ❤😥
Fabulous cause CC. I work for a charity and we raise money for research into all sorts of neurological conditions, it's close to my heart. Great shirt idea, please post photos of you in it on the day if you feel you can!
Cambridge Half ones are, I think, the full booklet. If not on the website, I am sure it's on their Twitter feed. I have nothing to compare it with and haven't read it in detail yet, but it seemed pretty comprehensive. I'll get nosy now looking at the other ones at other events!
Love this... I cannot wait... you helped me so much with my first HM last year....and I loved it... and now, doing the same HM this year.. .I cannot wait... because I have a really good idea of what it is! I can totally enjoy!
The bit of advice you gave me was.. anything can happen on the day.... just relax and go with it... and I did... a headwind going out and the same wind coming back! Only difference.. cold heading out.... stripping off heading back !
My training is ... errr different.... having had the head cold that the family have been passing back and forth... I managed a short 2.2 K yesterday.. wild and windy... but blooming great.
So.. I was hoping to increase things towards the weekend... but.. snow is hampering and Storm Dennis heading here for the weekend. What fun!
Weirdly.. I am not worrying... I ran 31 days in December... started January and got a hamstring injury and then started run/walking to get back to it...and... I feel strong... the legs feel great and despite this blessed head cold...stamina and strength are good !
I know I will complete it... maybe no Trophy this year. not quite in the next age group ( 70 + ... two weeks later after my birthday), but hey... who cares
What a brilliant post Roseabi! I had that lumpy welling up in my chest towards the end just like I do on my races. I think I’ll properly be in tears at the end of mine though (note to self: remember tissues!!) 😍
I recommend kitchen roll - it stands up much better to being carried in sweaty pockets, and doesn't fall apart so easily when you blow your nose on it 😊😊😊
Excellent ideas! Thank you both. You reminded me that I took some tissues on a very sweaty run over the summer and they disintegrated. Loo roll maybe just for the start, I’m hoping not to need the loo until the end 🤞🤞
Thank you so much for this! I am signed up for a half marathon, but not until September... so not really ‘training’ for it just yet. I was excited anyway but your post has made it all the more!! 😁😁
Thank you so much for that. It helps so much to read about others experience and encourages me to believe I can do this. So I’m off out in a few hours to attempt my first 10 miles in prep for that first half marathon in June. I can do this. 😊🏃🏻♀️
Brilliant post roseabi! Not sure whether the huge 🦋🦋🦋 are nerves or excitement. Just over 4 weeks for mine - eeeek! No running last week due to being away skiing and, since getting back, I just haven’t been able to face the weather. Today, though, it’s bright and sunny and the wind’s dropped quite a bit. Unfortunately, I’ve got a hair appointment in half an hour, so I’ll have a colour refresh and a trim, then go for a quick 10k I think (then have to wash it again 🤦🏼♀️)
I’ve made some fundamental HM errors. First one was setting off too fast and getting awful stitch
Wearing some cheap trainer socks which kept going to sleep and felt like razors scything the soles of my feet 🙄
Oh yeah, I remember now, I ran an October HM in a really dreary, cold, drizzly, windy day. As i felt really quite hot as I ran I poured water on my head and face to cool me down. What I’d not factored in was that because it was cold and wet I wouldn’t dry out. I’d soaked my buff, my tee and my running tights. I got really cold. And by the end was dithering. Lesson learned. I had to walk home too I ran in the end as I was so cold 🥶
Gosh it’s hard work running into gale force winds but rather nice having it behind esp going up a hill! Not long got in from a 18km run!!!!! Furthest run ever in 2hours so longest distance and time and felt wonderful! The worse the weather the better it is for me and the view at the hill top of the snowy mountains in the distance was lovely in fact so lovely I ran up it 5 times! It’s a nice 1mile circuit round this hill so a good way to clock up the miles! Defiantly ready for the HM in 4 weeks time, though got a tough 10k race next weekend through sand dunes and the windswept coast of Northumberland! Can’t wait!
Great stuff Abi! I'm a particular fan of power-ups from small children - actually from anyone who'll high five me 😂
Training has all gone it bit wrong in the last week as I was tapering for a 16 mile race that didn't happen because of the storm. I couldn't get motivated on Monday so I was due to do around 12km this morning but something I ate put paid to that! Feeling a lot better now so might try and get out tomorrow morning for a long slow run 😊
This weather is a proper pain! Based on my recent unpleasant experience, I'd say keep that long slow run close to home or at least accessible facilities😱! Hope you feel much better tomorrow; you'll be back on track in time for your HM - I have every faith in you 😍
Just read this roseabi - what a great post! I certainly related to so much of it - very exciting and such a buzz! You are no doubt in the final stages of preparation for the Brighton half this weekend? Hopefully it will be calmer than the last two weather-wise!🤞
Urgh, I haven't been feeling great this week, a lurgy is lurking and I have sore legs! So I've been taking an extended rest-day 😊😊😊 Still a few days to go, and no more storms forecast so far, so it's all good!
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
