Challenge number 8 – to PB at the Cambridge Half Marathon.
Today was the first of my
physical challenges which was to get a personal best time at the Cambridge Half
Marathon. I hadn’t run a half marathon since 2012 and felt confident that I
could get under the 2hours 3 minutes that I achieved last time. Everyone that had run Cambridge before told
me what a lovely course it was and after an early start I felt optimistic as we
drove down the A11 especially as the sunrise was beautiful and the weather was
perfect. We got to the start area with
plenty of time to spare and it was as if somebody had flicked a weather switch,
the clouds came over, the drizzle started and the wind felt arctic. I had messaged Phil last night to ask him to
get some bin bags to wear once we had handed in our bag so we looked especially
glamerous in our pink bakery waste bags labelled ‘not for human consumption’! I wore my bag until the very last moment and
reluctantly shred it just before crossing the start line. The first few miles were very congested and
my average pace was over 9 minutes per mile which worried me a bit but I was
running with a fellow Gazelle Andrew who told me not to worry as we would make
the time up. I really enjoyed the first
half of the half and felt really strong, I remembered why I love running and
the encouragement from the crowds was fantastic. It started to hurt as I got towards mile 10
and I started to panic that I had gone too quickly but kept telling myself that
it was just a parkrun to go and dug deep.
Mile 12 was horrible, up over an overpass into a headwind and everything
felt like lead but I knew that finish line was coming and the last half mile
was flatter and I knew my support team of Jess, Eddie and Tom were in the crowd
so pushed hard and crossed the line just before the clock ticked over to 1:55. I felt quite emotional as I collected my
medal that I had achieved my PB and my chip time came in at 1:51:55 which gave
me an 11 minute PB.
Worryingly this was the easiest
of my physical challenges so I now need to get training hard and get out on my
bike for next months’ duathlon!
