Sunday’s Edinburgh Half Marathon was supposed to be my first sub-2hr half. Should be pretty easy when the profile looks like this, right?
The biggest race I’ve ever done, the atmosphere was fantastic – kids giving high-fives from the side of the road, runners smiling as we jostled. Everybody putting so much heart into it, often for something bigger than themselves, gives me leaky eyes. Mum and I ran side by side, mostly in silence, sometimes pointing out a piece of architecture or scenery that the other was missing. The early morning sun was bright and relentless – as the route went directly Eastwards, the sun was in our face the whole of the first half. I was far too hot, but confident and happy. Our friends and their small children were waiting for us at 6 miles and their 3-year-old told us later that we “ran faster than horses” past him.
We hit 6.5 miles in 57 minutes.
Look at that teeny, weeny bump at mile 7. That was where things went wrong and continued to go wrong for me for several miles. Mentally and physically, I suddenly wasn’t in the right space. I tried to remove my ego from the equation and run like a yogi, but I was crabby and critical of myself and my leaden feet and screaming abs. I like the cycling term for crashing out – ‘bonking’ – for its Carry On film vibe, but it certainly didn’t feel funny at the time.
I’d been eating veggie jelly sweets when I was training, as the energy gels I’ve tried gave me cramps, but they were just too sticky for my dry mouth on race day. My stomach absolutely refused to have them anywhere near it – I may as well have been trying to swallow a golf ball. When I pulled up to the side of the road to (I’m sorry) retch a bit – an actual Angel patted me on the back and gave me the strength to get my feet back moving again.
And on they did move. Just slowly. My lovely mum didn’t want to stress me by running right beside me with a constant stream of “Are you okay? Perhaps if you…”, so would run slightly ahead and then hold back for me. For absolutely miles. The patience of a saint, that woman. I managed to perk up again at about 11 miles, but by then it was too late to claw back the time. I picked up the pace in the last few miles by imagining my training routes at home (“You’ve only got from the bridge til the supermarket left”) and felt hollow and relieved on the finish line. The smile on my face as I crossed the finish line says it all.
So, a PB due to the hills, but I missed out on the 2hrs (and consequently so did Mum. She would have made it without me!). Perhaps it was a bit much to expect when I came back from injury 7 weeks ago, but I had been hopeful. I still had a great day and weekend, and know that it’ll make me a stronger runner in the long run. I had my nutrition pre and post race in the bag, and was well rested and It was a 9:4 ratio of good miles to horrid, and I need to work on improving that proportion.
Great North Run is in 16 weeks and the lessons I’m taking from Edinburgh are:
- Nutritional Plan for during a race. Must find gels or the like that don’t give me cramp.
- Improve core strength to enable Chi Running
- Put that ego in a box and try not to get in my own way with critical thinking.
Well done ladies, brilliant run.
Keep up the inspirational work!
Thank you Adele!
Great report – a fantastic and honest review of running. From my experience (too many years now !!) there are never bad races, even if it does feel that way on the day. Every run is a learning experience in some way or the other. And I think that’s where you’re review is so good by its honesty as well as the positives you’ve taken from it.
All the best for the next races, and good luck with the training – you’ve spurred me on to get a grip with mine!!!
@djhreed67
Thank you Duncan. I’m hoping that through reflection on what went wrong this time, I can get the ratio of good miles to painful better – 9:4 was just too much!!
Good luck with the training. What races are you planned in for?
I’m trying to get a training regime in place for the Yorkshire Marathon in October. Wish I could join you on Mondays but its the one night I can’t do – shame. So I’m thinking to try Pudsey Pacers and see if I can’t get some improvement on my pace that way.
I met some of the Pudsey Pacers when I did the Leadership in Running Fitness course recently. They seem very well organized so you should get some good support from them. I’m doing Yorkshire marathon too – if we set up weekend long runs in the summer, will let you know. -j
Thanks for that Janey, good to know. I hopefully know a couple of members already but have never been able to commit to club running before – hoping this will get me back to my old, faster, pace!?
Long runs nearer the time sounds good too – 10 miles up and down the Leeds Liverpool canal can get a bit monotonous!!
Did you try clif shot blocks? They are vegetarian, and much easier to eat than gels (but they do have the electrolytes in them too)- they look like cubes of jelly but are much softer (like the texture of those fruit jellies you buy in boxes, York ones?)- so much easier to eat when running.
Well done for carrying on when it got tough.
Thanks Maria, it felt horrid at the time but I’m thankful I got those feet moving.
I’ll give the shot blocks a go. I have to be honest, I’ve been refraining from ‘proper’ sports gels, sweets etc, as they’re so expensive, particularly as you need to train with them too. But this experience has shown me that they’re probably worth the expense if they help avoid a meltdown like Sunday’s…!
Hi Maria,
I’m revisiting this post after nearly a year and I’d like to say thank you for this comment so long ago. I now LOVE Clif Shot blocks and use them for all my training. They’re the perfect consistency, and I love that I don’t have to squelch more than I want at a time. Thank you for recommending – made such a big difference to my training. x
Well done Bibi! The toughest races teach you the best lessons. You two are awesome.
Thanks Soph. It was so funny realising at the finish line that we had you as a mutual friend with Angel. SUCH a small world!
Hello. Thank you so much for the blog comment, from reading your post it seems like we definitely had a very similar experience. Edinburgh turned out to be a real suffer-fest!
You and your mum did an absolutely brilliant job in tough conditions and hopefully those perfect conditions will turn up for both of us in a race soon and that sub-2 will be yours. I think we deserve it!
Thanks for reading Polly! It was really good to read your report too – we had such similar experiences. Have you signed up for your next one?
I’ve got The Great North next, but I’m not sure that’ll be my sub-2 as it’ll be so busy. I think I might try and find a nice *flat* quite empty one towards the end of the year.
If you want a really flat 1/2 marathon race in this part of the world(Yorkshire) then the best by far is the York Knavesmire Harriers Brass Monkey. think it’s in January next year (and was snowed off last year) but it’s very flat – the only ‘hills’ are up and down over two bridges. Very popular so will fill in days if not hours when the race opens for entries. See
http://www.yorkknavesmireharriers.co.uk/brassmonkey.htm#BM2012info
I had a place for Brass Monkey this year – was so excited then sooooooo disappointed when they called it off! Definitely on next year’s to-do list. Thanks for the reminder 🙂 -j
Such an honest account. I found the mental part very useful, and consider the second-part shift as a warning shot over my bow. I am to run my first half marathon in three weeks and am in the throes of reading everything I can lay my hands on … here’s hoping the long training runs set me up well. Thank you so very much for this and for everything on your website. You have helped me more than you know as a veggie who has come to running well into adulthood. =)