Oh to be a Runner! by lisarodgers

I woke up early Sunday morning in nervous and excited anticipation of the Half Marathon I was about to run…. Then I looked out the window!

The wind was howling and gusting at about 30mph I reckon (!) and the rain was lashing down in torrents. Bloody marvellous! Had a good brekkie and resigned myself to the fact that I was going to get wet and left the house in good spirits.

As it turned out the rain stopped and the sun popped out but the wind didn’t let up. It’s a two lap course the Norwich Half, and the stretch between miles 2-3 and 8-9 saw us running into a rather harsh cross wind which blew the soil off the fields quite viciously into the side of my face. Fortunately, this was somewhat compensated by a nice little tail wind at little further along the course, hoorah!! Thing is, its hard not to think about the inevitable repeat on the second lap.

I was keeping it steady for the first lap and a few familiar faces cheering me on whilst going through the Showground at the half way point were very welcome. I was feeling pretty good with one rather nice (yes, I have found one that I find reasonably palatable!) energy gel taken and was plodding along quite nicely. I hit the 10 mile mark and rather unexpectedly my right leg felt somewhat odd and promptly turned to jelly. Determined not to stop, I slowed down but it felt really weird, a bit like when you twizzle around repeatedly and then try to walk in a straight line. Anyway, this lasted for what seemed like ages and I kept saying over and over ‘I am a strong and confident runner’ – I think I said it in my head but I was kind of in a trance like state so I could well have been saying it out loud!

By 11.5 miles I had it all under control again and tried to pick up the pace just a little. I knew I was pretty close to what I’d done in the last half I’d run in March but I so wanted to get just that little bit quicker time.

About ½ mile from the finish, the adrenaline was kicking in as I could see the crowds across the field. Then I approached a lady who I could see was really struggling.. in fact, she was nearly horizontal. As I pulled up next to her I said ‘Come on love, you can do it, run with me!’ She did and made it across the line running, just a bit after me….

Was precisely 35 seconds slower than last time but in the end it didn’t really matter and I think if the leg hadn’t have had jelly like tendancies, I’d have done it, I’m sure.  

Now all I need to do is double up....