Sophie Raworth's Blog by Sophie_Raworth

Three days after the Great North Run and I am still on a high. It must be all those endorphins. I was far more nervous on the day than I thought I would be. I hadn’t run further than 10 miles since the Virgin London Marathon and wasn’t entirely sure how my body would hold up this time. I kept telling everyone I just wanted to get round without any dramas but of course, truthfully, I was desperate to do a good time. After messing up the marathon in April, I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. We arrived at the start line with an hour and a half to go, greeted by the wonderful sight of 54,000 people getting ready for the world’s biggest half marathon.

The lovely Sue Barker was with us at the start line and promised she’d wait for me to finish this time – however long it took! We set off at quite a pace and I spent the first few miles trying to slow down, without much success. I made it to the five mile mark before being overtaken by a banana. The crowds were fantastic – handing out jelly babies, oranges and even beer near the end. The weather was perfect – sunny but not too warm and even a shower for the last 2 miles, just when we were tackling the final big hill. My mother had insisted I wore my heart monitor this time (she’s not overly convinced by all this running since the marathon!) so I did as I was told and found it surprisingly reassuring.

At around 9 miles, I saw Superman, gritted my teeth and overtook him. From then on I felt like I was flying. But irritatingly one man I failed to overtake was my husband. Despite telling me days before the race that he’d pulled a muscle playing squash and didn’t think he would be able to keep up with me, I just couldn’t shake him off. As we neared the finish line, I dug in and sprinted for the end, thinking that after years of trailing after him this would finally be my moment. But he and his strained muscle stayed with me and we both crossed the line in exactly the same time – 1 hour 51 minutes and 17 seconds.

My moment of almost glory was all broadcast live on the BBC but it caused some confusion with family back at home. ‘There’s Sophie crossing the finish line with her husband’ Steve Cram told viewers watching on TV. But the man caught on camera wasn’t in fact my husband. He had decided to avoid the TV cameras and cross the line further away! The man sprinting to the finish with me was Ken – my ‘minder’ who’d spurred me on for 13.1 miles. ‘I saw you cross the finish line with Sophie’ my mother-in-law told my husband when she phoned later. ‘You do look rather different on TV’.