Alarm gone off way too early. Gritty eyes. Can you run a half marathon on 4 and half hours sleep? Time to find out.
Arlo our 2 year old is with us in bed, Thomas the tank engine has just fallen in the ravine that is the space under the bed. I'm up to rescue him, it's important work.
Now a shower and thinking about the complicated subject of a pre race breakfast. False start on the shower due to potty retrieval. After much deliberation I've gone for shredded wheat. Bite size (obvs) no reason, might even have something else. Yep, mini wheetabix as well. All about the small stuff. Coffee, because I can't function otherwise, oh and water, didn't drink enough yesterday at all.
Breakfast done and I'm at the window waiting for taxi man. He arrives late but only by a few minutes. He tells of traffic beyond measure towards the Embankment where the Race village and start line is. he takes me on a short cut, its blocked as we will be running that way soon. we double back and join the huge line of cars all heading for the same event. the clock ticks on, its 9.17am race starts at 9.30 and the meter reads £21. right that's it, we agree £20 and I'm out and running, the start line must be half a mile from here, call it the warm up. I pass a girl walking, "might as well call it 14 miles!" i say as i rush passed trying to be clever. "28 miles for me" she retorts. all of a sudden i feel insignificant.
I'm at the race site, OK, Loo ...Blimey lines and lines of portaloos and lines and lines of runners waiting. i drop my bag in to the kit tent first and then return to loo queue. rushing off to the start looking for the blue pen area, really thirsty, need the loo again. i finally find the group I'm in and i duck in. hang on this cant be right I'm at the start line on the front row! i can see the 3.45 full marathon pacers flag, well if i stick with him I'm on for a 1.50 half marathon time. i chatted to "Fat Matt" (his name for himself) who had come over from Essex with his other half who was running the full marathon. He told me that only a few months ago he was 20 stone and then he lost 7 of them! The chatting helped my heart rate drop a bit and i no longer need a wee, the klaxon sounds and we are off. I'd already ran some to get there on time so I'm warmed up and at pace almost straight away, 5 minutes 30 seconds I'm looking for on the watch. i look after 30 seconds and its bang on.
The first few miles taking in the station, down passed Riverside Retail Park and on to the Boots site was great, lots of talking with a nice quick but light pace. the weather seemed just the right side of warm with no real wind (that's the weather not me!) and so i felt good. I noticed others around us talkers looking rough and hardly able to breath properly, feeling smug..... for now.....
Along route i saw a few faces i recognised both running and spectating, no one saw me so i had to shout them out. The first hill was up through the west gate of the university in Beeston and it was shallower and shorter than some I'd trained on so found it quite easy. The difficulty came when i grabbed my first bottle just before the Uni gates, they were flexible packaging and had a spout that i just could not get in to. I sensed the same was happening to others as there were lots of full packages discarded as well as H20 explosions as competitors squeezed the life out of the packaging trying to get a drop of water out of the spout only to find the bag splits open and drenches them and those in close proximity, give us normal bottles next time please, even a cup is better than that!
Reaching the top of the hill, under the arch and out in the open to the sound of 'The Script' - 'Superheroes' playing really loud, that got the adrenalin pumping for the long down hill.
Once around Highfields Lake and out on to the dual Carriageway of University Boulevard, this is the first place i start to feel my legs had done something more than 5km and then it kicked in... "STOP AND WALK" my brain starts to shout.... nope!
I decided to obey the call as we approached Abbey Bridge, a short hill but enough to stall progress, i walk, just for 20 seconds or so and as i reach the top I'm off again, feel refreshed. As we run around the traffic island at the bottom of the Bridge i see a small group of girls holding a sign that says "touch for Power", there was a blue and white flash painted on the cardboard sheet they were all holding and people were hitting it as they went by, i too was sucked in by its claims and quite frankly is was a lie, a scam. I jogged on with a smile on my face, the sign had done its job.
If the first half of the race was a community of runners, conversing, whooping and smiling, the second half was very much an individual challenge, most people looking inward and staring blankly at the road 10 feet in front. you could be forgiven for thinking that you were running a different race. i tried to make the best of it, mentally blogging as i went as a distraction. By now we were in to the 9th mile and my thighs were hurting and weak, while my toes felt like every step was a hammer blow. I run very much on the front foot and have done for a while, but now the only way to give my feet any sort of hope was to shift to a gentle 'heel strike' and surprisingly it helped a lot. I think the problem was although i have run every day since January and my legs are strong and well up for the challenge of 13.1 miles, my feet weren't, they were used to hitting the road 5000 times a day on the 5km runs. now they are being forced to do 21000 steps and were drafting a stern letter to their MP. The embankment again and I'm running down by the river, as i turn on to the track i see my son Josh, he completed the mini marathon with a friend and came in 80th, he has been waiting to see me and ran at the side of me for a bit, until his mate fell over that is. It was really nice to see him and meeting up with him couldn't have come at a better moment, i must have been travelling at quite a pace as he said he could hardly keep up.
As i looked to my right i could see the lucky competitors running in the opposite direction on the road back to the finish line, the problem being that from my position i couldn't see at what point the turn was. All the while hoping it was close i spotted it, damn it it was miles away! i stopped and walked again, feeling despair as the tiny distance that felt like travelling to the moon had made me stop. What are you doing you nutter? so close now! i wind up again and reach the small patch of grass that leads to road. It felt running up hill in custard and it was only a few metres!
On the tarmac now, and i hear sickening thud as a runner hits the floor next to me, his friends crowd over him calling for help, he reaches his arm up and in a way that was reminiscent of a movie where a soldier is mortally wounded said "leave me here, you go on!" I'm sure he must have finished with "Save yourselves". The crowds are louder here this being the final straight to the finish, I've saved nothing for the final sections but I'm speeding up, i check the watch, less than 5 mins per Km, then 4.30, now 4.... ow! i stop dead, i swear I've been shot in the back of the left leg yet i didn't hear a gun! Cramp, it gets tighter, the lack of water because of these stupid flexible bag things has got the better of me, why now after nearly 13 miles?! I man rushes over and as i look up to speak to him i swear loud, i then notice lots of faces all looking this way with sorry expressions. "You OK mate?" "Yeah cramp, ill be OK I'll walk it off, its these stupid bottles!" i splutter through tight lips. "Here, have my water" he pushes his half drunk bottle at me, i take the lid off and drain it, i would have drunk that if it was his urine at that point i think. He asks me if he should walk with me but i refuse. As i walk away i turn and thank him and within 10 seconds I'm running with a limp. by the time i get to the grassy section that leads to the finish I'm OK and running without a problem, there is no way I'm walking or appearing to struggle in front of the crowd here. They line the route and the noise is deafening. I hope Lisa and the kids have made it and i hope they see me, but I'm not looking for them I'm staring at the left hand corner that will take me and my stupid aching legs to the finish. I turn the corner and see the finish line and I'm running fast as i can the crowds noise seems to have doubled in volume and its carrying me. i see the gun time is 2 hours 4 mins and a few seconds, but that's not my time, I've not looked at the watch since before the cramp, how long did i walk for? I stopped the watch as i cross the finish but i failed to see the time.
I was hoping for 2 hours this year, in 2010 when i ran it last i did it in 2 hours and 35 mins. I know 2 hours is a massive leap so anything near that is amazing.
i check the watch but i can hardly see it..... 2... not 1!
Well I'm gobsmacked that's nearly 40 minutes improvement on last time.
I can hardly walk my feet feel like I've been running on sandpaper, i grab my medal, water and goodie bag and stumble off the kit tent to retrieve my bag. checking my phone trying to get hold of Lisa, she is by the first aid tent waiting, i bump in to my mate Pete, he looks as bad as me and came in just before me it seems. He asks if i have water, i have a bottle unopened so i pass it over. we share a moment of solidarity and of hard times and agree to meet the next day for the 5km run i have to continue with so i don't have to run it alone. we part company. i hobble off like a zombie collect my bag and drag my undead bones to meet Lisa and the kids. She was still at the tent waiting, "Well done" she said perhaps thinking I'd come in at 2 hours 4 minutes. "Was that your actual time?" i tell her the good news and she is just as pleased and amazed as i am, giving me a hug only to discover the sweatiest neck in the world! i sit on the grass where we met to change my trainers and as soon as i do my right leg cramps up.... nice.
we all stay for a bit longer, i buy a tee shirt, a burger, a coffee, donuts. we watch some of the runners coming in, some of them finishing like cheetahs and others like tractors, but all still finishers and that's all that counts.
Well done all those that ran on Sunday and those that didn't run, do it next year, you will hate it and love all at the same time!
I ran The Robin Hood Half Marathon this year as part of my 5kaday for a year challenge for Nottinghamshire Hospice and it was run 245. The first and only other Robin Hood half marathon I ran was in 2010 and I struggled through in 2 hours and 35 minutes. I tried a couple of longer distances a few months back and coped pretty well so thought I’d just continue with the shorter daily runs and force myself round on the day. Knowing that the 9 months out of my yearlong challenge for Nottinghamshire Hospice has raise over £2700 was great inspiration during the tough second half of sundays event. Local families rely on the vital support they get from the hospice so I know the money that’s raised is just as vital.
If you feel you would like to donate please go to www.justgiving.com/5kaday
