Since the last time we blogged, I have completed a half marathon in Birmingham and we have both completed HellRunner: Hell up North and Brutal 10 at Longmoor.
I think the last time I blogged, I was training for the half marathon and moaning about the epic cold I had. Needless to say the half marathon was a massive challenge. In the week leading up to the run my cold moved onto my chest and by race day I sounded like a 70 year old smoker. 13.1 miles is the furthest I had run and running it alone was not easy but the atmosphere was brilliant. I had tactfully worn my Raising Hope Foundation T-Shirt which has my name on the back so I got lots of people shouting encouragement to me personally which was much needed at certain points.
At around 4 miles, the course sort of looped round so as I was running between miles 4 and 5 I could see people on the other side of the road heading in the opposite direction running between miles 8 and 9. I'm not going to lie, this was very demoralising however, I felt hugely proud of myself when I was eventually running back down the other side of the road heading for mile marker 9 (at which point I was running along side a man in just a pair of shorts - no T-Shirt, no shoes and no socks!!!!)
With the chest infection and cough, I did have to walk at a few points throughout the course but I was determined not to stop completely at any point. Despite this, I managed to find some energy to "sprint" over the finish line and completed the run in 2 hours 29 minutes. The feeling of crossing the line was amazing but the next few days were quite painful.
(Unfortunately, my usual photographer was on strike on the day of the race so the only photo I have is from the official website and very unflattering even for an action shot!)
