28 degrees. Not a cloud in the sky. Country lanes and undulating hills. Sounds like an ideal day for a relaxed walk, a swim, or perhaps a snooze in your garden, right? Probably not ideal conditions for a self-described ‘challenging’ half marathon?
Lo and behold, the show must go on and so that’s exactly what I did last weekend. I rocked up to St Albans Half Marathon, my first ever HM event and one of my first ever races in general. I’d trained for 10 weeks, I’d got up to 12 miles in training, I hadn’t missed a session on my plan. Finishing time wasn’t crucial for me, but I did have a time window in mind that I would have been really happy with. On the day though, it all went out of the window…..and pretty quickly at that!
The elevation started creeping in early, with some smaller climbs in the first couple of miles and the first longer hill around mile 3. I’d been told there were ‘4 big hills with some lumps and bumps in between’ and my goodness, those big hills were long. In combination with the heat, my breathing was out, my HR was through the roof and my legs were feeling it.
I was running with my brother Martyn, who had run the race a couple of years ago and was familiar with the route and those hills. He was originally pacing me and the first few miles we did pretty well, but my Strava graph falls off a cliff pretty quickly after that, oopsie. We promptly decided that my time aim wasn’t sensible in the conditions, so we adjusted and went for a ‘let’s finish it, get over the line and not batter ourselves’ approach.
And that was what we did! We walked the long hills, stopped at the water stations and filled up with electrolytes, took videos, and chatted to others along the way where we could.
We made it over the finish line a long while after we started and about 30 mins after my ideal finishing time had the course and conditions been a little easier (for me). But you know what? PSA – a half marathon is always a half marathon, whether you race it, dance it or crawl it. 13.1 miles is a half marathon and that is most certainly what we did on Sunday.
The point of this post is to share the reality of running as a normal person. Instagram, blogs and the running community naturally focus on the joy of running, but it can more often than not seem that everyone and their dog is getting a personal best, smashing their times and cruising through training and races.
Running is hard and events are hard. Pressure on ourselves and the constant focus on pacing and times is HARD. But it doesn’t have to always be about that – in fact, it’s probably a lot more fun to relax a bit and just do you. I wanted to show the reality that sometimes we want to walk. Sometimes hills are hard. Sometimes it’s boiling or freezing and our bodies just don’t adjust that well. Running is repetitive, our bodies aren’t machines, and hey – a medal is a medal. You don’t get that if you don’t cross the finish line.
So next time you are worried, in the comparison trap or have to change your plan – IT’S OK. No-one else really cares. Smile and remember what you’ve just achieved for yourself, both mentally and physically – I guarantee it’s worth the journey.
I hope the video above shows that 😊
Race Recap
Brilliant race from Active Training World! They run a lot of local events, both running as well as duathlon and triathlon, across Hertfordshire and the Home Counties. They had Covid friendly measures in place and had made efforts to stagger and distance the start line. The marshals did a great job around the course and the water stations were fully stocked with individual water bottles, as well as electrolyte tablets. In a sustainability initiative, they opted out of giving finishers t-shirts and instead have said they are planting trees on our behalf. Medals and finishers Haribo and ice lollies it was instead!
All in all, it was well organised and really nice to have some atmosphere whilst we were running. Well done and thanks to ATW. You can check out their races here.
Happy running gang- keep at it.
Ele x
chasingele.com 