I Survived The Newport Half Marathon

On Sunday I joined a bunch of Pegasus and SMR runners at the Newport Half Marathon. I'd signed up at the end of last year and didn't want to let a little thing like being injured and hardly running since January put me off.

I had done a few 3 mile runs and a 5 mile run since end of January and that was about it. I decided to run it anyway and told myself that I would run/walk or just walk if my glute/hip started hurting again. What's the worst that could happen??!!

Obligatory pre-race bid on vest photo

My running buddy Sarah picked me up and we set off in the pouring rain for Newport. We were following her tomtom which seemed to want to add a bit of drama and mystery to the route so took us through the lanes, this was fun until we got to one part that basically had a lake in the middle of it. Swear words happened. We looked at each other and decided to just slowly drive through and keep everything crossed. It worked! We didn't kill the car or drown. Bonus!

Only exaggerating slightly...

We got to Newport, parked the car and joined the Pegs in the leisure centre for pre-race chit chat and about 3 visits to the toilet.

All smiles and nerves ready for the start

We all said good luck to each other and split into 2 group: the speedy-pants-Pegs and the not-so-speedy-pants-Pegs.

Luckily this wasn't the queue for the bathroom

I started the race with Sarah, Wendy and Clare as we were all going for about the same finish time.

We seem to have lost Clare...

The start of any race or run for me is the worse part. It takes about 3-4 miles for my body to settle down and find its stride, add recovering from injury into the mix and I was seriously doubting my bright idea to run this half marathon.

Always playing up for the camera!

Clare and I got into a nice pace together and around mile 8 we rounded a corner then I shouted "PIGS!!" On the side of the bank were 2 big pigs just going about their pig business while nearly 2000 people ran past them. We decided to stop for photos.

Because pigs like selfies too

We carried on along the path and as we were coming up to mile 10 I could hear bagpipes. I said to Clare "can you hear bagpipes?" and luckily she said yes, I was a bit worried that I was hearing things due to overdosing on energy gels and jelly babies.

We decided to stop again and have a selfie. Clare also did a bit of a Scottish jig which he seemed to very much enjoy and it also entertained a few runners who looked at us like we were crazy and didn't realise that we were running a half marathon.

Bag pipe man!

The last 3 miles of the race were a bit of a blur. My legs were on fire and I don't actually know how I kept going but Clare and I dragged each other through it and finally we were very nearly at the finish. A marshal shouted "sprint finish" and off we bolted. We were lightening quick. Or at least that's what I felt like I was doing. I was probably only going slightly faster than a shuffle at that point.

It's finally over!

We managed to meet up with Sarah just before the finish which was lovely and we came through within a few seconds of each other. Once finally through the finish arch we all hugged, congratulated each other and held on to each other for dear life and fear of falling over.

I'm sure this is what I looked like when trying to walk

We walked through the runners village and collected our goody bag, medal and finishers t-shirt. We were also handed a foil blanket and a chocolate bar, or maybe I just mugged someone. Who knows.

The Newport Half Marathon medal is MASSIVE! It's slightly bigger than my Manchester Marathon medal and I only had to run half a far to get this bad boy.

Check out my bling!

We were one of the last of the club to finish but somehow were the first ones back to the leisure centre so compared race stories and took some photos.

Exhausted and happy lady-Pegs

It wasn't a long wait until a load more Pegs and SMR arrived so we huddled together for a group shot.

My running family

Now no race day blog would be complete without a picture of my boy Winston and my bling, so here it is...

Bling bling!

I am very happy to report that my injury seems to have settled and I didn't get any pain at all during or after the run. The worst pain I had was the general aching all down my legs from running 13.1 miles when I'd hardly trained for it but that's nothing a few painkillers and a hot bath followed by yoga the next morning didn't fix!

By 4pm I was on the sofa wanting to go to bed but I managed to stay up until 8.30pm when I admitted defeat and took myself off to bed. I was exhausted.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

All in all it was a great day, the sun made an appearance a few times and the rain held off. I couldn't have asked for more. My finish time was 2 hours 34 minutes and 6 seconds and I am very happy with that. It's not my fastest half time but is 10 minutes quicker than my first half marathon and only a minute slower than the Severn Bridge half marathon that I did in August 2016.

So what next I hear you ask... well I've just signed up for the Swansea half at the end of June with a finish time goal of sub 2 hours and 15 minutes which will knock nearly 10 minutes off my PB. It's an achievable goal but means I need to focus on my speed work, hill work and I need get my long run distance back up into the double figures again. I'm totally up for the challenge and very excited to start my new training plan.

Wish me luck!

The Year of the Half Marathon!

2017 is all about the half marathon!

My running goal for this year is to complete the Cardiff half marathon in under 2 hours. Yep you read that right, I'm going for a sub 2 hour half marathon!

My last half marathon was Cardiff in October 2016 and took me 2 hours, 23 mins and 28 seconds so that means I need to knock about 24 minutes off my race time. Ok then...

That about sums it up!

In order to achieve this I am going to have to push myself harder than I usually do. I'm going to have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and with it hurting. When my brain says "WTF are you doing? Stop!" I'm going to have to find the strength to tell it to shut the f**k up and just keep going.

I know I can do this, I know I can push myself further. I've been smashing my PBs since last August, I'm getting stronger and faster so this is doable. I just need to face the fear and not let myself get intimidated or defeated before I give myself the chance to try.

I'm signing up to do 4 half marathons this year so I can keep an eye on how I'm doing as I go, the races are:

Newport on 5th March

Swansea on 4th June

Severn Bridge on 27th August

Cardiff on 1st October

I'm also going to try to blog more often as it's a good way to keep myself accountable and on target. I should probably also draw up some sort of training plan then not really stick to it and end up drawing all over it when I don't follow it. That sounds sensible.

Wish me luck!!