Yesterday I was one of the 10,754 runners who took part in Run To The Beat. My first half marathon in my home city with my favourite runners. It had taken me a while, but just as race day rolled around I was
finally looking forward to it. But it didn't go exactly to plan for me. Here's how it went down:
[A bit of background: As you may know, I was aiming for a sub-2 PB (my Paris time was 02:03:21), and with the help of a brilliant pacer in the form of the legendary Charlie Dark of Run Dem Crew, I knew I'd do it if I stuck with the group.]
Miles 1-4: Always the hardest in a long run, right? And bloody hell it was
hot. But we started at a comfortable pace that was slightly faster than the 08:46 minute miles that we'd need to bring us in at 01:55:00. I think the hills started at Mile 2. I kept my eyes on the ground, telling myself it was flat. Before I knew it, we'd passed the Mile 4 marker in 35 minutes. And then I felt a twinge in my knee. Nothing painful though, so I plodded on.
Miles 5-8: I finally stopped noticing the heat and accepted my sweaty fate. We'd dropped a few RDC members (some had sped off, some had dropped back), but I still had Charlie in my sights and the fabulous
Peigh by my side. We passed over the halfway checkpoint and rounded a corner to a delicious downhill section. And then I looked up. Holy. Jesus. The hill. I will be forever grateful to Peigh for getting me to the top with (false) promises that we were totally there already. All I remember after the hill is people handing out Vaseline, and the pain.
Miles 9-10: For some reason (more Peigh lies?), I already thought we'd passed Mile 10 when I saw the Mile 9 marker, which was quite disheartening. But then the lovely boy reminded me we were almost at Greenwich Park, and once we were there, we may as well have been at the finish line, right? But the painless knee twinge had now become a massive stabbing pain whenever I landed or took off on my right leg. Not handy. So I slowed to a walk and lost all of my pacers. I tried to run again, I couldn't. I continued like this for a couple of minutes, trying to figure out whether this was the end of my race. I did manage to hand off some Skittles to a girl who had stopped and said she felt too faint to go on - I hope she made it to the finish line.
After yet another attempt at running, I gave in. I found a lovely steward, who fetched the St John Ambulance people for me. Once I'd explained my injury, they sat me in a mini wheelchair, draped a space blanket over me, strapped me in and wheeled past the Mile 10 marker to the ambulance. I looked like I was being taken into an asylum, I wish I had a picture for you. Also, I did ask whether Callum the first aider wanted to wheel me a further 3 miles - he didn't. They sat me down at the roadside, gave me an ice pack for my knee and strapped it up. Meanwhile I watched everyone run past, and wanted to cry. Thankfully for the lovely St John volunteers, I saved the tears till I was on the phone to Al, who was waiting for me at the finish line.
The finish line: I got back to the O2 on a bus (a lesson in why you should
always carry your Oyster Card, Londoners), where I promptly burst into tears all over Al, who hugged me even though I smelled like a zoo - that's love right there. At the Nike tent, I was reunited with my gorgeous Run Dem Crew-ers, full of post-race euphoria and ready with hugs and kind words for me. Cue more tears. I am so proud of all of them, and over the moon that the crew members who stuck with Charlie crossed the line in under 2 hours.
If you've ever been to Run Dem Crew, you'll know what I'm talking about, but if you haven't, let me tell you - Run Dem Crew is SO much more than a running club. It's the most amazing family, and I'm honoured to be a part of it. The encouragement, unity, concern and love I experienced yesterday (which continued long into the day) is something I'll never forget.
I'm not sure whether I'm smiling because of the RDC love,
the Al love or because I'd just been reunited with my deodorant.
Well done to everyone who made it to the end of Run To The Beat, especially those of you who battled through the heat and the hills and still came away with PBs. It was a tough race - if you're thinking of doing it next year, hill training is your friend. You might want to bring your iPod too if you like running to music - I think the whole musical element of the race was massively oversold (is that just me?). But please don't let that put you off, it was well organised and the stewards were fabulous. If you ran, let me know what you thought!
