Wokingham Half

In a nutshell, it was pouring with rain, I had dreadful IBS, but somehow, after a man with a Dennis the Menace t-shirt told me at Mile 6 that we were on course for sub 2h, I negatively split it to a 1:58:34 finish.

Look!

Mile 1: 8:57
Mile 2: 9:18
Mile 3: 9:02
Mile 4: 9:11
Mile 5: 9:11
Mile 6: 9:20
Mile 7: 9:03
Mile 8: 8:57
Mile 9: 8:39
Mile 10: 9:05
Mile 11: 9:11
Mile 12: 8:51
Mile 13: 8:40

(I took these times off my watch by pressing it each time I went past a mile marker).

I'm trying to think what to say about it.  I'm a bit sad that they didn't manage to get any photos of me as I was so proud to be wearing my Mind Charity vest.  It was VERY wet, I wore a bin bag for the first two miles but then decided that I wanted to show off my Mind vest (and make sure that my number was showing for photos of me!).  I just kept chipping away at the miles, started eating my veggie jelly bears at mile 5 (put them in two at a time as kind of difficult to chew), made sure I took water each time it was offered, and just tried to keep putting one foot in front of each other.

I definitely didn't have a race plan.  If I had, I doubt I'd have achieved what I did today as I think I'd have been trying to stick to 9:30 minute miles.  I enjoyed looking to see what other people had on their tops (previous race top/club top/charity top (like me!) or just plain).  I put out a call on facebook for people to send me texts, and I got a load of really kind ones, including several from my fellow Supervisor at work such as "Go, go, relax your shoulders" and "....theme to Chariots of Fire" which really made me giggle and gave me something else to think about.

Now it's over, my IBS is still horrific, my legs are in agony (no idea how I'll walk tomorrow, let alone cycle to work), but at least I'm dry and warm.  I knew that I probably had a sub 2h half marathon in me at some point, but I didn't think it would be this time, as I've not done nearly as much running as I thought I should have done in the last two months.  Well, it proved enough!  So I might not ever have to do another stand alone half now :)  What is scary is that the next time I attempt that distance I will have swum 1.9k and cycled 90k first...