Yep – I ran again.
Well, it has been almost two years since the big one, and I have been running a couple of times a week just to attempt to keep a little of the flab off. So I saw GD around 6 weeks ago, and he mentioned that him and Peaky were doing the run, so I thought – hey why not!!.
Entered that weekend, then found out that Span was doing it too, so there would be four of the old tasker bunch. I also found out that my Auntie would be running too, so quite a collection. Training began.
With six weeks, and only really running around the three to four mile mark I knew I had to create some type of training plan, so made up a list of milage I expected to do each Sat, increasing to around 10 miles by the Sunday before the race. Training went well, managed two 9-10 milers before the big day (Sun 4th March), I felt I was ready to get around.
Start was supposed to be 9:00, so we had to leave the house at 7:00 on the Sunday morning, stupidly I had eaten a chicken vindaloo on the Sat night, but managed to dispose of that early and before we set off. First stop was Llanelli to pick up my Auntie Linda, so we followed the Sat Nav into Llanelli and then down a very narrow road – you sort of know as you turn into it that this isnt right, and the road got narrower, and then suddently had a bollard in the middle of the road, so after a 23 point turn we were back driving around aimlessly. Luckely we did manage to head in the right general direction and before we knew it we had picked up our passenger and away we went.
Linda had suggested that we pull over by Lidl and jog the rest of the way to “warm up”, sounded like a good idea, except Lidl was some distance from the start line, at least a mile and a half. So it was a good warm up, but I was also knackered before I started. After a quick wee in the bushes we found Span, GD (with new girlfriend in tow – must be love!) and Peaky and we were off.
Very busy start line, I think someone said there were 1500 runners (should have been 2500, but the weather wasn’t too good and I guess a load shyed off). So we plodded on through the masses. Span had a time of 1:40 in mind, which I was very impressed with, and he took off like a whippet, I plodded along with GD and really wasnt feeling too up for it.
After about 2 miles I caught up with Linda, and GD went on ahead, Linda was running with a precise set time with a very smart GPS system the whole works, so I stayed in step for a bit and then stretched out. After about 4 miles we wound ourselves around and came back on ourselves it wasnt until here that I saw GD again, he was a fair distance away by now, and slightly later saw Span, he was really quite a long way in front.
By 7 miles I was pretty tired, and running on my own had no idea of times, at this point I ran passed the cheerladies of Kate and Sian, so they had hung around in the cold for an hour waiting to cheer for 5 seconds as my tired bloated sweaty body chugged passed. just after this I was running passed the start/finish line and the winner was just finishing! They must have been running around twice as fast as me for the whole distance.
Got to about 10 miles in and Peaky caught me up, I must have had a slowish middle section, and just behind Peaky was Linda, she was on a shedule so I ran with her to keep me on track. The course seemed never ending, as you went around one corner you could see runners in the distance, by this time the sun had come out, and I was a little warm!
At around 12 miles in, I saw that I had 15 mins to finish before 2:00, so thought I would give it ago, I left Linda and kicked for home. I was really knackered by then, and felt a little sick which I don’t normal feel like. Anyway I put on a spurt which was not easy at this point in the race, and as the minutes ticked away I was beginning to think I wouldnt make it. Just a final 10 mins I was saying to myself, push a little harder, if you do it under 2:00 you never have to run again!. So, after doing the last mile with my eyes closed in a painful grimace I bundled myself over the line – 2:01:52 – didnt make it, and came 1002 in the race. So I will return.
Nightmare to leave the place in the traffic, but went back to my Uncles for lunch of Salmon and potatoes and strawberries – I felt like a healthy person for a while. After some photo’s the lizard and a cup of what tasted like orange earl grey we headed home and I could put my feet up for a few days without feeling guilty….