Race Report 1

In true epic style....

OK so it was a cold and windy day. Gale force winds were blowing across the UK, freight trains had been derailed, flights had been diverted.... I went to bed and hoped the wind would die down and the weather would warm up for race day!

Sleep the night before was disturbed, partly as a result of pre-race nerves, partly as a result of Soros the cat providing midnight loving (in the form of dribbles), but mostly from the raving indegestion from overeating in the evening (that chocolate pudding was a pudding too far). I eventually awoke about 0630, a little early, still feeling full up and nervous. Having written my kit list the night before I set about belaying the feeling of increasing panic my packing kit, checking off the list, finding my lucky charms and feeding the cats! Realised at about 7 that I really ought to try and eat something, settled my tum a bit with some warm water, lemon and honey (usually does the trick), eventually I managed to eat a small bowl of porridge (made with water - no milk in the house - what a mistake)... but the dollup of yogurt and spoon of honey helped!

All the race notes said be there for 8:30 (race started at 10:05 - sounded early to me)... so off we set at 0800 (obviously having double and triple checked that I had everything!).... The journey in was easy, being a relative local I knew the short cuts (those avoiding the masses heading in - did I mention 17,000 raced!). Parking was easy as I had ticket for one of the local carparks and a short walk to the stadium led me to the inevitable - queue for the loo!

I gratefully met up with Leanne and Dan - sharing pre-race nerves is always a blessing I find ;o) eventually after some hanging about we started to make our way with the throng of people to the "start line"... I say start line as it was about half a mile long! Obviously the elites were at the front and us mere mortals found our way to "expected finish time" bandings... Dan joined the queue first, expecting a 1:40ish time, I popped in just behind the 2hr mark and Leanne continued on (she should have come in with me but underestimates what she can do - IMHO!)... This was Leanne's first half marathon and was therefore probably the most nervous - I told her with some hilarity just to think of the next time - she'll probably be starting it having done a 85k bike (yes she's doing a 70.3 this year too)... Ha Ha!

The gun sounded and we were off... well ok so at least the elites were off... 5mins later and we began to go with a cheer from the crowd... only to stop again (we were just being taken up the road a bit)... as the commentator said "and the leaders are passing the two mile mark" we began to move again - this time for real... And so.. over the start line I went, no iPod tunes in my ears, just in my head....