I did it, I ran a half marathon!

So the boys and I went off to Wellington last night and as luck would have it our guest house was like 2 blocks away from the start/end of the race. Yay how awesome. We took a walk there and saw the start - an evil start with a steep uphill for the first few blocks. Nice! We took a look around the stadium and got oriented and then went back to get ready for the morning and to have dinner and watch TV. We went to bed just after 21:30. I woke up many times during the night and had loads of dreams - thanks to the nerves, and kept being too hot or too cold.

I finally woke up at 05:45 to hear torrents of rain. GREAT. I thought screw it I am not running in that and stayed in bed another 15 mins. I sms'ed French dude J to tell him the weather was crap and he said he knew, he was already at the start!

So I got some coffee and drank it in bed and by then it was already 06:20. The boys woke up and I told them I was doubtful that I was running... but then the rain stopped and the 3 of us decided to give it a try anyway, I was still not really feeling committed. So I dressed and got ready quickly and we headed off at 06:55 wearing jackets and shivering in the cold. I had not had breakfast or anything, even though I had planned to. I don't normally eat breakfast but I thought a 21.1km race might require some sustenance, but the morning was so stop-start it just never happened.

At 07:10 I was right at the front by the start - I hadn't found J or S yet, I sent the boys off to wait at the side and gave them my jackets and next thing off we went. I started at a reasonable pace and thought I would just go at see how I felt - slowing down if I thought I needed to. The first 1km was comfortable and I felt fine. Just after that I found R10 lying on the side of the road and stopped to pick it up - that is the 3rd time that's happened to me now. I saw that as a good omen.

I was alone listening to my music and just ran comfortably and the kms passed nicely. I was mentally calculating how far I had gone in fractions and percentages the WHOLE time (10%, 1/8th, 15%, 1/7th etc). Each time there was a water point (about every 3km) I drank a small cup of Pepsi, thinking the sugar would help to keep me going. I was totally fine until 10km when I ducked into an orchard to pee quickly. I checked my watch and I'd done the first 10km in about an hour, not bad! After that it started drizzling and there was a nice downhill so I sped up a bit. I enjoyed the steep down hill to the 12km water point.

Then it started raining quite hard, at one point we had an off road section on a clayish dirt road which was a little slippery. I just kept going. At 14km it was really raining and I decided the best way to deal with it was just to GO and get it over with, so I just kept going.

At about 17km I was tiring a bit and had slowed down on the steepest hill (but was sill actually running - unbelievably), a dude ran past holding a stick (which must have been a 'bus' (timed marker such as sub-2-hours etc, you can follow them if you want to come in at that time) his flag was long gone from the rain though. I assumed he was the sub-2:15-bus and decided to try stay with him. I managed to keep him in sight until about 19km when he got too far ahead of me. There was some wind added to the rain in the last 4km and I was getting cold, so instead of walking I kept running to keep myself warmer and to get it over with.

I tried valiantly to catch the dude with the stick again but never did. I finished about 1-2 minutes behind him. As I got to the end I felt a bit tired but otherwise quite good and euphoric actually. I scanned the end for the clock to check my time but couldn't see it... at the medals I started asking people around me if anyone had been timing, and one person said they'd done 1.56, so I finished somewhere around 1.55-1.57 (I'll use the official time when it's published for this one). WOW! The dude with the stick was apparently the sub-1.55-bus!

I am honestly totally amazed astounded and impressed. I did not think I could do it at all, and really did not expect that I would be able to keep running!

I was freezing and wet and cold afterwards. I saw a few friends, found the boys and Roxy who were having a ball and then we left soon after to go back to our guest house for a blissful hot shower.

Turns out S wasn't even there, and J's time was 2:01... I think they owe me a CASE of beer now!

My legs are a bit stiff and I could do with a nap now but I am otherwise fine. Apparently some years this race is very hot, and others very windy, so I think the cold and rain were actually preferable.

And my friend Lindy took a pic of me looking like a dork at the end. So there is proof :)


Here's the Action Photo pic of me running the last 100m into the finish. Glad it's almost over!