We're not as brave as cheekychipmunks ; we took the easy option for our Bath Half along the old railway line, part of which we trained on last week. After yesterday's buffeting in the wind during our (not)parkrun I really needed somewhere a bit more sheltered as the wind was still with us, just not as intense as the day before.
I was worried as I hadn't had much sleep and yesterday's run/walk in the wind had made me feel a little poorly. Thankfully I may have not had much sleep but it was good quality and the body seemed in good nick for the run. Katnap was still recovering from his mad marathon earlier on in the week and had blisters on the heels of both feet, so he had his demons too. Who tapers for a half marathon by doing a marathon!!! 😂
The weather wasn't as good as I'd been led to believe last night so I piled stuff into my hydration vest: phone, tissues, food, gels, water, jelly babies and gave Katnap my lightweight running jacket in case the heavens opened. It felt like we were going on a major expedition by the time we were ready to go.
We cut back our warm up walk as it was just so cold that warming up wasn't an option, and got going. Now normally, in March, the old railway line is quite quiet, but these aren't normal times and I think everyone has got a little hardier and more determined so there were lots of families on Mother's Day walks despite the conditions. Still, our practice run last week held us in good stead and, after a steady pace, we were soon past the point we turned round the previous week.
A brief stop to take on gels and water and call the kittens to meet us with coats at the RSC at the end, we were on our way again. This second half we stepped up the pace. Last week I made the mistake of speeding up too early and too fast, so this time I held back and just slowly went through the gears.
My last HM, the last 3km were torture; I hadn't trained well enough. This time my 6 week plan did me a treat and we really motored through the last few km. No calves on fire at the end of this run, just the joy of a race well run. And it really did feel like a race: the first Virtual run where I've actually felt like it was a challenge and an achievement. My only problem was Strava seemed to completely muck up the feed from Garmin and, although it was a HM PB (2:19:46), Strava said my HM was longer than my moving time...work that one out!
The kittens met us at the finish which was lovely. And we all had a Mother's Day treat at a new cafe that does the most brilliant brownies ever! Then home for a long, long soak in a different sort of bath 😊 Looking forward to a bottle of wine and a lovely meal cooked by the kittens tonight 😃👍😍
Spitsbergen Marathon (half)