Sunday 19th October came round a lot quicker than
I hoped! It was the day of Bupa Birmingham Half Marathon.
I got up at 6.30 in preparation to shovel in some porridge
and get to the train for 8.10. The porridge was a no go as the nerves were
kicking in.
Lee and me headed to the station- we were child free for the
day- that doesn’t happen too often!
Arriving in Birmingham
with Lee and a number of colleagues running the race for Hope House Hospice we
joined the crowds making their way to the Library where the race would begin.
Sending Lee ahead to get into his superman costume and
leaving my colleagues queuing for the toilets, I ended up taking an unexpected
detour and found myself surrounded by elite runners about to start their race!
After a girly scream and on- the-spot- panicky- dance, I found a gap in the
barrier and squeezed through to avoid the lyrca stampede.
Finally meeting up with Lee we found Sarah so I could grab
my new Shabba shirt to wear for the race. We headed down to the baggage area
and for a quick toilet stop bumping into a few RMR’s including Fiona who is now
an Community Ambassador (well done!).
After a short walk and wait, the green wave set off! Lee and
Sarah had managed to join the greens as it didn’t appear everyone was sticking
to their waves.
Lee soon flew off in a superman blur and Sarah and I wished
each other luck before parting ways.
After leaving the crowds and music, I plugged into my iphone
selecting the Rudimental album to get me around the course.
Having not taken part in such a large race before I wasn’t
prepared for how difficult the first few miles are. The sheer volume of people
around me meant there was a lot of ducking and weaving around to find space and
having to judge whether to overtake or move to the side. Getting to about 4
miles the runners started to thin out as everyone got into their pace. I could
tell from the pace on my TomTom I was going slower than my training run the
week before but so far I had been consistent. Having crashed and burned at mile
12 the week before I knew I had to keep it steady and save something for the
last 3 miles.
Hitting the 10k mark I knew it had taken me about an hour. I
was slightly disappointed with this as that was the slowest 10k I had done in a
long time but the course had been unexpectedly undulating which I hadn’t been
prepared for.
Right up until about mile 8/9 I had felt comfortable in my
pace. It was then that the lack of a decent breakfast hit me and I felt drained
coming into Cannonhill
Park
To add to my distress, a sudden gust of wind which had been
picking up swept past a nearby oak tree, dislodging a large acorn which hit me
straight on the forehead! Thankfully I avoided serious injury and concussion to
round a corner and find the jelly babies waiting! It was such a relief to get a
sugar kick which spurred me on.
Getting past the mile 10 marker, I had a rough idea what was
ahead. The main topic of conversation before the race had been ‘the hill’.
When the steady climb appeared ahead I took some deep
breaths and ploughed on managing to keep a slower but steady pace all the way,
round the corner, carrying on up…
Hitting the flat and the last mile I got a new spurt of
energy and set off at a faster pace, it had been wise to save some energy for
the end. I didn’t worry about the final steady incline knowing the finishing
line was not far away. The energy I had saved earned me my quickest mile of the
day! Seeing the finish I stepped up the pace again and sprinted through
stopping my watch at 02:07:08.
After some minor spatial awareness issues, I found some
Shabbas near the finish line cheering on the runners and stopped for a chat on
my unplanned detour. Finally finding my way to the baggage area I found Lee and
we collected our bags, snapping a quick medal selfie on our way out.
A quick drink before we headed home was well deserved and
brought the day to an end.
It was an all round fantastic event with a great atmosphere.
See you next year!
Now to find 26.2 miles in 6 months…
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