I thought I'd better get this blog out before the Royal Parks crowd all do theirs v. efficiently tomorrow ;)
So 2 weeks ago I DID my Run to the Beat HM!!!! It was brilliant. I met up with Carla (Fortnight Flo) and Alma (Plustenner) and we ran all the way together apart from a short distance in which I had to shoot off and find a toilet or else I'd have had a Paula Radcliffe moment!! Thanks to the Royal Standard for letting me use theirs! After that I managed to catch them up and we stayed together until the end!
Carla paced us brilliantly and kept us going steady rather than run off like all three of us really wanted to do. I honestly think that's what made it so much easier than any of my training runs. I'm definitely going to take more notice of pace in future and less notice of speed.
The weather was a little bit warm, but there were plenty of drink stations and we made sure we took advantage of each of them. In the last 2 miles we saw several runners collapsed at the side of the road being looked after by medics, so we did the right thing.
We went over the line in official time 2hrs 33 mins!!! Amazing! My prediction from my training runs was 2h 45m so it was an excellent time.
The support all the way round was terrific. I had my name on my shirt and it was so good when complete strangers cheered me on and shouted my name. Passed the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research cheer point at about mile 11 and they roared my name out. (I was wearing one of their bright yellow shirts). I felt like a Superstar!.
Carla's family kept popping up all round the course with a big banner. I have no idea how they did it. They must have been running faster than we were :)
I saw Mike and my Mum in the last 500m cheering and taking photos and it was really nice to see them.
Carla grabbed Alma and my hands and we went across the line all together, yelling!
Then we were finished, all still standing and all feeling great. It was the most amazing feeling.
We got our medals handed in our chips and went to get our bags. Then we did a bit of stretching and went our separate ways. That is when everything started to go wrong for me.................TO BE CONTINUED....
