Cardiff Half

4 days before the half marathon I received the most exciting news that I’d been granted a golden bond charity place to run the London Marathon next April. Up until this point I had been nervous about my first foray into double figure miles but with this news all I could think about was that this was now just a training run.

Sadly my mind had gone into overdrive and the excitement stopped my sleep, the night before the half I went from excitement back to the nerves and the agonising over lack of prep due to troublesome knees. My appetite left me and my normal pre Sunday long run prep went out the window.

We all met in Monmouth at 7, I’d been busy taking on fluids as per numerous training websites advice which resulted in having to ask the bus driver to pull over along the A40 which prompted the question from in the bus “Is this your first half marathon?” yes indeed the nerves had definitely caught up with me. Luckily we had a professor on board with a key to Cardiff University, happy days, clean empty toilets, Laurence is now my saviour!

Around 9000 took part and the atmosphere was fantastic at the start line, from the gun it then took me 8 minutes to get across the start line. I had a strict plan, the first 3 miles I’d do at 11 minute mile pace to calm myself down and then I’d build up the pace from there. Sadly there was a lack of markers until mile 3 which I’d done in just over 28 minutes, way too fast, I did 6 miles in 60 minutes and I started to rethink my goals, maybe I could better my target of 2:23.

Then I hit the wall, my belly was completely empty and had an overwhelming feeling of nausea. When I saw the water station I thought it was a mirage, it kept the sickness at bay for another 2 miles but then the thighs started to complain. The last mile was torturous and when I turned the last corner and saw the finish line I was delirious! I hugged my hubby at the end and I let out an emotional wail, I was so exhausted I couldn’t even cry properly! My time was 2:23:24, although it was my target I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. The scary thing is, I’ve got an extra 13 miles to run in 6 months time, now that really is nerve wracking!