Somehow I convinced Michael to run a half marathon with me. I wanted to get another couple in this year, and this one looked really fun and the course was mostly flat(good for me since I have done no hill training). Mike had not done a lot of training but I knew that he would manage, he is one of those frustrating natural runners who can just run on very little training.
We arranged for Ciara and Ayla to sleep over at Grant and Linda's (thanks so much for having them!!), and my mom was staying home with the other 3.
The last half marathon I did in May was small, so it was great to enter a race that was going to be run by a large number of people.
I laid everything out the night before, I knew we would have a very early start so made sure I didn't have to think in the morning. The slow cooker was put on with our steel cut oats(best pre race breakfast ever). We woke up just before 4am, ate breakfast straight away, got dressed and then got into Michael's car. We drove down the street, decided to swap cars, so drove back and changed everything into the other car. I then couldn't remember if I had packed my alternative racing outfit(in case we got there and it was very cold), so back in the house I went - talk about race nerves.
The drive was long(just under 2 hours), but very relaxing. There was a full moon(which looked more impressive in real life). We listened to some sermons and music and just enjoyed it being the two of us. We arrived with time to spare, so parked in one of the parkings quite far from the race village. We didn't realize what a walk was ahead of us, but I guess it was a good warm up, I was shivering the whole way, it was pretty cold. By the time we got there, we just had enough time for toilets, baggage drop off and a short warmup. We found our corral (somewhere behind the 1:45 pacer), and in no time at all the race started. The energy of the race made us start quite a bit faster than I wanted to, and it did not feel that difficult so I thought that perhaps I could keep it up, we were doing about 8:15-8:20 mins/mile for the first 6 miles and then we hit the first hill. We slowed a bit, so I tried to pick it up on the downhill to make up for lost time, and as we came around the bend at the bottom of the road we heard excellent drum music, it was such a boost, especially to see how much the drummers were enjoying playing, and it was in a beautiful area, perhaps this was through the University of Nottingham. I managed to keep the pace under 8:30 until 10 miles, and Michael said to me I can't really go faster than this, so I was happy that I was not holding him back in anyway, but by the time we past 10 miles my legs, particularly my quads started to hurt. I looked down at my watch and saw the pace getting slower. This was a bit upsetting as I wanted to be able to up the speed for the last three and finish strongly, but my legs just did not want to go faster. Those last 3.12 miles hurt, and the rest of the race went past in a bit of a blur. I thought those last 3 miles would last forever but they were over quick and we came to the final stretch. (Michael had been going on ahead in the last 3 to try and encourage me to pick up the pace, so I had to tell him my legs just won't let me, and said he should go on ahead of me, but he didn't want to - he wanted us to finish together which was lovely.)
A lovely part was along the river. (I did not buy these pics, the prices are extortionate, hence the mark on them).
As we came in the park to finish, I had a final bit of speed and we sprinted to the end. As soon as we crossed the line my legs started hurting more, we grabbed our medals and goody bags, and went and sat down and stretched. Michael was starving but I couldn't even think of eating, so he ate a few things from his goody bag, and a bit later we had a recovery milkshake and then headed back for our long walk to the car.
I was very pleased with my time as I knocked about 15 minutes off my last half time, but I do also realize I would've come under 1:50 if I had started out a bit more conservatively, and that is the lovely thing about running, you can always try harder for the next time. Also I loved doing this with Michael, and getting to spend all that time with him, and I look forward to the many more races we will do together, I am so glad we can experience this together. But I know the next race we won't be running alongside each other, Michael is just too fast for me.
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