Finishing the great north run consisting of three convergent stages for me, all just seconds apart.
1. Crossing the line and seeing the big clock… Thinking “umm what time does that give me?”
2. Pausing my watch and thinking … Well a few four letter words sprang to mind.
3. The edges of my world going very dark and me exceptionally quickly finding the floor and putting my head between my knees.
I hadn’t really been checking my watch during the run, I’d been doing ok at the beginning and to be honest I was trying my best so checking my watch wasn’t going to help me much as I had no more to give. I spent the next hour queuing for a bus while trying not to pass out. The following hour was spent in the bus trying not to throw up on the very kind man next to me. But, after all that, I had a two hour drive back to Leeds and I had a few thoughts.
Firstly I cried for a bit. But then my dads “wise” words came to me, “ if you don’t stop crying I’ll give you something to cry about.” I ran a half Marathon, that’s more than many people achieved today and more exercise than some people will ever manage. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself.
Failure to plan is planning to fail. Mentally I had set myself a goal time without any basis in reality. My friend had said less than 2 hours (average time faster than my 5k pb). I had said 2:10 (roughly same as my 5k pb) and figured I’d end up in 2:15 (last years). Crossing in 2:25 sent me into a spin, but actually it was probably about right.
Training plans last until race day. I was gutted because I couldn’t have done the same thing all over again today which I need to do for the marathon. But I have 7 weeks Til race day so I probably don’t need to worry about it just yet.
So, all in all, I realised that maybe today wasn’t the worst race I’ve ever had but I have a whole lot of work to do before New York. So let’s crack on…
kungfupandarunner 