I was in two minds about whether to enter this year's GSR. Last year's experience (my first race) was somewhat mixed. I enjoyed the event as a whole, but was unhappy about my run - my target time was unrealistic, I ran out of steam at about 7 miles and had to resort to walk/run, which I hadn't expected.
Three things helped me decide to give it a go this year - my son said he would be interested in joining me (his first race), we decided to run it in aid of Bowel Cancer UK in memory of a dear friend and of course the massed HU contingent who had already entered!
My son also runs regularly and was keen to see what he could achieve, so we agreed he would join me in the pink wave, but once we passed the start line, he would be off! So we lined up with the thousands of others, went through the start and there he was - gone!
My hope this year was to be able to run the whole distance and to get under 2 hours would be a bonus, particularly as my longest distance recently was 12k. The 2 hour pacers were a little ahead of me at the start, but after a couple of miles I managed to slowly overtake them. The sun went in at about that time, which was helpful. I plodded on, but began to run out of steam at about mile 8, when you turn back onto the seafront for the finishing stretch. It was shortly afterwards that I heard the pacers coming up behind me!
I hung on, but listening to my body, had to ease off for the last 400m, coming in at 2:00:17, running all the way - happy with that! My son had managed 1:16:28 - better than he had expected. And we managed to raise £540
And then the great HU meet up, with my son an honorary member for the day. It was fantastic to see old friends from previous meet ups again, but also to put faces to well- known forum names for the first time. Of course I must mention the fantastic Southsea crew, who not only coordinated the whole shebang, but also somehow managed to magically turn up at 3 different places around the course to cheer us on!
