The dust has now settled and my legs have now recovered from their massive efforts. How on earth do I write a review about it all?
The preparation started off with a suggested meet up time with Tyrone and Lee at Dalston Junction at 7am!!!!
E-mail received from Lee Chapman
“Look at attached picture, I really don’t know what to do!”
That was my exact thoughts too!
Lee lives far far away in the lovely area of Maidstone, and on a Sunday, makes commuting that bit more of a nuisance. We had to be in Slough for 8:45am latest to get on the last coach to get us to the start line.
The conclusion we manage to work out, was that for Lee’s mum to take him to Bluewater shopping centre, and she would pass the torch, and I will pick him up from there at 6:15am to then collect Tyrone at 7am. So after packing my bag and kit for the day and many anxious texts and panic attacks from us three, we manage to bid good night, and TRY to sleep.
Surprisingly I slept quite well. Perhaps too well.
My alarm was set for 5:15am…
Woke up at 5:45am! Thank god I had done everything the night before. Brush my teeth and off I went. Driving like a mad woman to get to the Blackwall tunnel so I could meet Lee in good time, without making him wait for me.
As I approached the Blackwall Tunnel, Southbound was CLOSED!!!!!!
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!! Texted Lee straight away saying I had to go via the City of something. Took a quick diversion, and thought I will go through Rotherhithe tunnel instead…. After a late awakening and a massive detour, I was en route to the Garden of England!
Schumacher was whizzing away down the A2! I know Bluewater very well and the route, so I knew when to slow down for speed cameras, and which turnings to take. It was relatively very quick to get there once I was on the A2.
Got to Bluewater and Lee was waiting in his mothers car. After jumping in, we were ON OUR WAY!!!!!!
Tyrone had been patiently waiting for us at Dalston, and when we bibbed him to turn the corner, we were greeted with a fabulous smile from Mr Lowe himself and bottles of Lucozade sport drinks to give us the energy we needed for this dirty 13.1 mile run!
Our journey there was jokes. Time flies when you are having fun and with good company. We finally reached the car park where the coaches were picking us up. After getting changed in the car park and taking only the necessary items we needed, we boarded the ultimate old school London bus to get us to the start line.
Sat in the back in the corner of the bus, we were all silent. Silent from nerves, silent from fatigue, silent from preparation, we were just ALL silent.
My boss Richard was also running this half marathon, and he had boarded the same us as us, and sat with us. Gave me a few good pointers to look out for and some advice for the run. It helped. A lot.
After some texts from our great leader Cory (who sadly could not run it due to injured calves) and many good lucks on Twitter, we had arrived!!!!!!! The drive to the start line felt like forever, so the thought of the run back killed me inside. We arrived to the starting point and I could see afar the start line. We all went to pick up our timing chips and runner numbers. There were many people, but it was actually run very well. It was smooth and people were smiling. It helped that the weather was 23 degrees at that time! We bumped into fellow RDC runners, one of them being the lovely Eliza who I have ran with a few times on Tuesdays and who recommended me to try Glucosamine to help my knee joints.
Majority of us were in the 3rd wave, and Lee, who was in the 1st, decided to run the wave with us. The run was a round around the park first, to then up the hill, over the bridge to then the Towpath that went round the Thames.
Right, we were off! Tyrone and I had planned to run this race together, and not ONCE did he leave me behind or made me keep up, slow down or anything! He was AMAZING!!!
1 mile in, no problem, 2 mile in, oh that was quick, 3 miles in, Dulwich 5k done, and as we approached 4 miles, I was gagging for a wee. I didn’t want to stop our running flow and especially not Tyrone, so I had hoped and hoped in my head that T would want to stop for a wee wee break! And hallelujah! HE DID!!!!!
He took a sharp right, and I followed saying I needed to too! Thank god!!! Going further around the corner, I did a Paula Radcliffe! Ha! I pee’d as I looked out on the Thames where many ducks and swans were minding their own business. I just hoped I didn’t see a human face! Making sure I didn’t get any wee on me, I was good to go after!!!
It felt good. The run was much more comfortable then! Between mile 4 and 5, there was a patch of grass that we had to run through. The towpath itself was a struggle for me. Having small stones and rocks on the path does not help if you run on them! My ankles were going all over the place, and I ALMOST collapsed on it at one point!!! I was annoyed. Trying to keep my cool, we carried on running. We got to mile 6, and it was through a relatively quite small park esk, walk through thingy. YES, I thought, a 10k DONE! Just another 10k to go!!!! I can do this! After the 6 mile mark, we ran along the road for a good mile. This is where I felt at my best. This was what I was use to! The memento was going well. It felt good. I felt good. I felt strong. That was our only thing that Tyrone and I had wanted to finish the race on, to still feel strong at the end of it. Reaching to mile 7 and mile 8 felt like a doddle (thanks for that word Caz!) and I felt like I was flying! (slowly) the sun was shining, we were smiling and the views were just mind blowing. We were blown away with some of the houses that were there. I particularly hated on how magnificent these homes were. We both almost stopped at one home that almost seemed like it had their own little island. It was beautiful. You needed a boat to get to the entrance. It was magical! After drooling over a dozen of homes along the path, we manage to run and take some pictures along the way. And it really did capture how much fun we were having!!!
Mile 10: “How does my legs feel?”
It actually felt fine. No pains in my legs or knees. I was happy with my running.
Mile 10 just felt like such an achievement already! 3 more miles to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At this point my bloody bum bag that I usually swear by as a definite kit to have started to rub on my side. Like rash rubbing! It was a constant struggle having to run and move the bum bag back in its comfortable wedge! Note to myself: For any half marathons, DO NOT WEAR ANYTHING!!!
The run up to mile 11 was fine, as I was distracted by the rash and the irritation.
POW!
Mile 11. I’m not sure what it was, but as soon as I reached 11, my legs started to feel real tired. BOTH whole legs! Looking at my watch, we had been pacing at 11 minute miles for a good 6 miles now, and I wanted to at least keep that up, but I had to slow it down that little bit if I wanted to remain strong at that finish line!
T was happy to slow it down for a bit. Happy!!!!!
So as we did a steady pace towards 12, I was starting to wave the white flag! Feckin’ hell was this getting harder. More grass to run over, annoying stairs to go up and down from, and those annoying towpath gates where you have to swerve left, then right. This definitely killed any sort of good pace I was getting in to!
Mile 12. OMG, I made it to mile 12! FUCK! I’m gonna make it!!!!
At this mile point, I started to have this DIRTY stich that was neither on the right or left side, but right bang in the middle. Felt like I had been winded, or punched so hard! I kept running, breathing out as I striked the ground, but it did not help at all, as it wouldn’t go away. I even ran with my arms in the air for a while to see if that had helped. NADA!!!
I had to get T to stop and walk with me for a bit, and he was happily to do so! So we walked and stretched as we walked to mile 12.5. During that walk, on our left, a man had collapsed and was being seen to by paramedics under an umbrella. I remember seeing him running ahead of me at mile 8/9 and then there he was on the side of the towpath, sweating and what looked like he was hallucinating! T and I being shocked and worried at what we had seen, we spoke about maybe taking too many of these running gels/shots could put you in that situation, where you pretty much OD on artificial energy. It was a scary moment. Hope he is ok……
As we approached, yet again, those annoying towpath gates, a marshal was telling us to slow down a bit, as there were cows on our route. There was one in particular that seems a bit of a nervous wreck. Digging his feet into the ground, like a bull, as if he was about to charge. Tyrone had run a bit forward to then taking some sharp swerve to the right, cos the cow had charged for him! THAT was fucking scary! We quickly ran past the cow and onto the other side!!!! This towpath was getting worst and worst! What more trials and tribulations were we going to encounter on our last mile!!!!!!!????
That’s it, LAST MILE!!! We agreed to just fully run this.
WE did.
400 meters to go.
200 meters to go.
Turn right.
POW!
The last stretch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the distance I could see a gun finger pointed in the air. It was LEE!!! He made it with his dodgy knee!!!!!
The smiles Tyrone and I had on our faces as we ran down this stretch. The amount of cheering and clapping we received as we ran really gave us a boost. So much of a boost that we decided to sprint the last 100 meters!!!! That KILLED me!!!! But I had done it!!!! THANK FUCK!!!!!!!!
I’m not sure how someone can consolidate such a run in such a small brief document. This already is 4 pages long on Office Word on a number 12 font size. I like to babble a lot. But the babble is pretty much the most important thing right????
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