The day finally came around after entering this race 8 weeks ago.  Since entering my training plan has never really gone to plan, in fact it has never really gone at all.  I have been plagued by injury, illness and hangovers that have all stopped me from doing what I should have in preparation for this race.

Lining up on the start line all three of us (Emma, Frank and I) all shared the same “what the hell are we doing here” expression.  Nothing we could do but wait for the whistle and get on with it.

This is nothing like any of the bigger half marathons / marathons you see with thousands of folk running, this is a fairy low key event.  A small field of 200 runners, later we find out that this is seen as one of the hardest halves in the country due to it being so hilly……. great!

The running itself for the first half was fine, just steady away, try and keep your mind occupied and away from thinking about small pains and aches starting to appear.  That I think is the biggest difference of this race to any other I have down.   Running is automatic, especially on road.  there is no real thought behind it you just do it.  With cycling there is always something to think about, corrections, changes so the mind is kept busy, where as here, I felt myself having to try and think of things to take the focus of the inner demons telling you “it hurts” “I think i can feel a blister forming” “energy is low” etc.

Thankfully the scenery was great, we were surrounded by snow capped mountains and a good bit of my time was spent just admiring the view.

The first 10km came and went pretty quick, the next 3km after that even faster, but after that each km felt like it needed to be earned, I spent more time checking my GPS for how far I had gone, each time disappointed with how slow my progress was.

The last 3km was hard, but in the same time, the closer I got to the finish, the better I felt, not physically, but mentally.  It was like a count down to the end of the constant sound of my heavy breathing, achy legs and pounding of my shoes on the tarmac.  This feeling it was soon to be over kept me going.

I had always in my mind thought of a sprint finish, in reality – forget it!

The feeling of finishing was fantastic.  2:07:08.  Which I was happy with, it is not fast in comparison to most but for my first go with very little training and hilly course I am happy with it.  Frank did a fantastic job with 1:54 and Emma was an utter hero with 2:13 (she had done even less training than me and had never run more than 12km before, a bloody good effort on her behalf).  Below is the three of us at the finish line.

This race has confirmed that I have no desire to runa  marathon, this was long enough for me, i found the road running a little boring, not involved if get where I am coming from.  Think next running challenge will be some form of off road run?  TBC