Let’s start with the good stuff first. It was nice to run the entire race together, I’m not sure if I would have made it otherwise. At first glance the course looked simple, just two laps, a water station every 2km and over a thousand runners aiming for the finish line with their own personal goals in mind. Seeing the sun set as we went on with the race was beautiful, the sky turning from light blue to an orange hue and finally the darkness setting in. I’ve never done an evening race and the Twilight Half Marathon was a fun, and at times painful, experience.
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| Happy snaps before the race |
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| The starting line |
So what went wrong? Well, we started in the middle, or maybe towards the end of the group so for the first few kilometres it was difficult to get into a comfortable pace. Then come the 8th km I decided I would take my first gel. Not a good idea. Within five minutes I felt my stomach ache and for the next four km the run was uncomfortable. At 12km I was ready to give up.
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| Jarek a few minutes before the race |
Fortunately, I got a second push of energy and between 13km-17km I felt fantastic, even going up the final hill. I took another gel at 18km to get an energy boost to keep me going to the end and within minutes I felt my stomach turn again. This wasn’t good. There were no bathrooms in site and there was no way I was going to stop now anyway. I kept running. At 19km, I thought when is this race going to end. 20km, how far is that finish line, it was supposed to be here. I heard spectators yelling out ‘Only 500m to go’ yeah, I think I heard that a few times and wondered how could just 500m feel so darn long.
Finally, the finish line was in site, the race was over, and holding hands Jarek and I crossed the finish line. Although it was far from a PB, actually about 8 minutes worse than my first one, I am proud of Jarek for running his first half marathon and I hope that he’ll be keen to do many more in the future.
At the finish line, we received our medals, grabbed water, sports drink, fruit and a hot cross bun (roll with sultanas that only sells before easter). I guzzled it all down. I needed to keep moving. I felt great to have finished but my body wasn’t so happy about having just run 21.1km.
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| Exhausted and elated to be finished |
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| Done…so tired and dreaming of a shower and a good night’s sleep |
On the way home I really started to feel it. I had an hour drive and halfway home everything started to shake. I tried to control it as I was driving but from the inside everything was shaking. I couldn’t wait to get home and our plans to celebrate with our usual after race Nando’s meal was not going to happen. Nando’s was closed and I was going to be sick.
I spent a good twenty minutes under the hot shower trying to get warm again. I felt like crap. I barely managed to get down a piece of toast, some water and half a cup of ginger lemon tea to try to eliminate the nausea I felt. It helped a bit and at around half past ten I managed to go to bed so I could be up for work before 6.
Today, my hips and my knees ache. I feel seedy and tired. Next time I have a race longer than 20km I’m going to take the day after off work. Rest is important. So is adequate training which I am learning the hard way. Sometimes though, I really wonder why we runners put ourselves through this self inflicted pain. We know it’s going to hurt, sometimes really hurt, and yet we go out there time and time again to push our body and mind further and harder.
We finished in 1:56:25.
These are the split times on my phone, I turned on the counter about a minute before the start.
7:15
5:27
5:44
5:56
5:56
5:19
5:21
5:46
5:16
5:41
5:37
5:49
5:21
6:23
5:34
5:39
5:31
6:23
5:36
5:48
