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First of all I want to say a huge thank you to everybody that sponsored me.  I have managed to raise close to a staggering £1600 for the Brain Tumour Charity and Cancer Research charities.

Too be honest i’m still in shock, I simply can’t believe how much has been donated. You are all amazing!  Thank you, thank you, thank you…..

This year I took a different approach to my training. Rather than plodding along the pavements on my lonesome I decided I would enter as many runs as I could fit in.

This approach has seen my set PB’s at the Brighton, Worthing and Surrey Half marathons. I’ve also  taken part in trail marathons, the Steyning Stinger and also an ultra, the 30 mile winter tanners.

And of course not to forget my favourites, the Brutal 10k off road runs.

It took some real will power not to take on the Brighton marathon as well, I can tell you !

With all this training in the bag I should have felt pretty confident, but as usual the night before I was laid in bed unable to sleep with all the doubts creeping in.

I was up by 5:30, and on the train into London by 7.  I wasn’t too sure of the route, but I had been told just to follow the crowd. They weren’t wrong, runners everywhere. I followed them onto the red start, had a drink, got changed and handed my bag over. No going back now !

I lined up in my start pen, in amongst superman, a smurf and upsy daisy. Just your usual day at the office. It did make me wonder if these guys had trained in their costumes !

The race was started at 10 and we slowly, very slowly moved to the start. I think I managed to cross the start line at about 10:30 ish ?

Having seen the starts on TV, the red start definitely has the raw deal. It’s very confined and on much smaller roads (excuse number 1).

I crossed the line and we were off, the first few miles flew by. Lots of people at the road side cheering us all on already. Through residential areas with people cheering from balconies and all sorts.

The courses joined at 3 miles, we cheered the other runners and they cheered us as well all came together.

People have asked me what the atmosphere was like, well I thought it was fantastic already, but then we arrived at Cutty Sark. Oh my, you needed ear plugs it was so loud !  Just incredible, no other words to describe it !

Onwards we went and soon arrived at Tower Bridge at mile 12, I was feeling great, running well within myself enjoying the atmosphere.

I crossed the half way point where a deafening band were playing and looked at my watch. I was on target for a PB of somewhere between a 4:15 and a 4:30. But then I got to mile 14 and it all started to fall apart. How can 1 mile make such a difference ?

It started with really bad pains in my toes, then a feeling of no energy and nothing to give. Which was weird because I had made sure I was drinking and taking on board energy gels. I made it to mile 18 where Laura and Abigail where helping out at a water station. It was there that I realised I was really struggling with my breathing. I had a drink, another gel and a quick chat with everyone. Then it was time to make a move before I seized up.

Sometime shortly afterwards I recognised Terry up ahead. I caught him up and said hi. But from that point on I would have to run for a period, then walk to catch my breath, it felt like it was getting worse. I’d catch Terry, pass him and then have to stop and he would pass me and get away again. This went on for quite a few miles.

I gave it all I had believe me, looked down at my watch and thought 25miles… Yes 1 more to go !

Only then to realise shortly afterwards that my watch was a mile out, I still had 2 miles to go. NOOOOO….

The closer we got to the finish the wilder the crowds got. High fives, lots of “you can do this”,  “you are incredible” it really spurs you on during those during those dark “I can’t do this” moments.

As I turned the corner, the finish line was in site. I spotted 4 guys in a fire engine outfit and decided there was absolutely no way you are going to cross the line before me.  I dug in, crying my heart out as I crossed the line. I’d done it.

People often ask me what it’s like to run a marathon. I always say it’s one of the best, hardest, and emotional things you can do all rolled into one. This was one certainly hard and it was most definitely emotional, but it was also an incredible experience. I’m still welling up at the fact I took part and managed to finish.

My finishing time was 5hours 10minutes, not what I was after but I guess it gives me an excuse to go back and try again and hopefully beat those demons. I’m still looking for that sub 4hours 30 finish, I am so close !

A final thank you to Henfield Joggers for keeping me focused, and my family, Laura, Abigail & Hayden for their support and understanding.

So, with not the best amount of preparation and training – Mandy, Sue and I set out very early (6:30am!) on a cold grey morning for our little jog around the old Kings and Queens residence – Hampton Court Palace.

We arrived with plenty of time to spare, got a great parking spot and even got to the toilets the first time without queuing.

Now – the biggest issue in the lead up to any race, is of course : What do I wear?? HJ vests being a must of course, but was it cold enough for layers and if so – layers under or over? Decisions, decisions!! Needless to say – we all got it pretty wrong.

It was pretty darn cold at the start so I was feeling quite smug in my 2 layers with long sleeves base layer. However, it was evident pretty quickly into the race that we were overdressed and within 2 miles – we’d stopped and taken off those pesky hot base layers.

So…we kicked off in our allocated wave time (Mandy and I together and Sue 6 mins behind us), and the first few miles were quite narrow which required a fair bit of weaving in and out for us to get past people and finding a good pace was quite tough. We probably should’ve been in a different start wave but we live and learn from these things!

Running alongside the palace with the huge black bars on the gates and massive gold ornamentation was pretty cool and the views along the river were fabulous – even on a grey cold day.

It all then gets a bit hazy for me once we start to hit the ‘road’ section especially between 6-8 miles as I felt pretty tired at that point and quickly scoffed a gel – hoping it would help. Mandy pulled slightly ahead of me aswell so I was my own at this point although I had her in my sights the rest of the race – just couldn’t quite keep up!

Then I saw the man himself……HENRY VIII !!! So of course I had to stop for a selfie ????
After that I came back around the tow path by the river and past the palace again…which was around Mile 8 I think, and I turned on my music as I needed something else to distract me from how tired I was feeling.

I always find it truly amazing what effect a piece of music can have on a person as I was soon flying along fresh as a daisy and singing out loud along to ‘Queen’s’ : “Fat bottom girls” and “Invisible Man”, aswell as other such classics as “Footloose” and “Pump up the Jam” ????

So with a gel in my tummy and music in my ears the next few miles just flew past and before I knew it, I was at around 11.5 miles. Then the roads narrowed a bit, people started appearing and cheering and whilst that’s great support, for me I found it quite distracting along with all the overtaking of walkers, and the traffic, (they hadn’t closed the roads) and at one point I was stopped by a marshal to wait for cars to pass. Good job I wasn’t chasing a PB!

Finally there it was….the finish line…only it was almost another mile to actually get through it – longest EVER last mile in any race I’ve ever done ????????

Overall a pretty nice race. The biggest issue for me was the traffic and stopping runners for cars to go by – otherwise if you manage to get into one of the front waves – it would be a pretty fast race as route is totally flat.

No race is complete without a trip to the pub afterwards, and we all had a lovely meal and admired our amazing huge chunky medals and free tshirts whilst relaxing and scoffing mains and desserts and plenty of fluids.

Sue was a bit poorly from her cold/virus thingy after the race and Mandy was super tired, so the drive home consisted mostly of me talking to help keep Mandy awake (she was driving) but which seemed to do a great job of sending Sue to sleep ????

Huge relief to get home, have a hot bath and rest up the legs.

Great experience and if they improve the traffic situation – would be one I would do again for a PB attempt as its a nice route and fast and flat.

Lorns

What better way to run your first half-marathon than by signing up for the IAAF World Championships which were being held in Cardiff? In for a penny in for a pound, that’s my motto. Seriously though, the opportunity to run in the same race as Mo Farah and ‘get’ a world ranking was too much to pass up.

We arrived in Cardiff, on a glorious warm Friday afternoon, with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky. It wasn’t to last though, and on Saturday we lined up outside the Castle with around 15,000 people mostly wearing ponchos or bin-bags to keep the wind and rain at bay. After a rousing rendition of the Welsh National Anthem, we were off to chase down Mo.

Shortly after the start, the weather took a turn for the worse. About three miles in the hailstones arrived – horizontally – and then, as we crossed the sea barrage, we were treated to gusts of wind in the 30-40mph range!

The crowds were great and one shout to me of ‘great running, you’ve got this!’ was worthy of the support you get from fellow Joggers, particularly as it came only 5 miles into the race…

Cardiff Castle, Penarth Marina, Dr Who’s Tardis and Roath Park were all lovely sites to see, but we just settled in to try and complete the course without drowning or succumbing to hypothermia. Suzie promised that she was never, ever, running a road half again!

In the end, we made it round, decent medals and t-shirts were collected and we headed off for some of the best veggie curry to be had anywhere.
All in all it was a great experience to be part of. Oh, and Suzie has already wavered and signed up to run the Cardiff Half-Marathon in October! (She says she’s ‘not going to be beaten by that b##@@%$d’).

Andy and Suzie – the 11706th and 11707th best half marathon runners in the world! J

If you had said to me a year ago that I would have even contemplated running a marathon I would have said ‘no way’!  On mothers day Sunday 6^th March, as my alarm went off at 5.30am, I knew that my traditional lay in and breakfast in bed was definitely not happening. As I forced myself to eat porridge and banana the nerves really started to kick in. I knew I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked. A calf injury on my 20 mile training run three weeks before and a cold two days before is not the best preparation for 26.2 hilly, muddy miles. If it wasn’t for the encouragement of fellow Henfield Joggers and my husband Dave (who was running the half) I think I may have considered postponing this madness until the following year.

We picked Daren and Les up on route to Steyning and already I was starting to feel better with the thought of meeting everyone at the start. The weather was looking amazing and I had a feeling it was going to be a good day with beautiful views! We arrived early and collected our race numbers. I couldn’t believe it when they handed me number 13!! Yes 13!!! And I went to the toilet about five times (nerves I think!) I was also really happy to see one of my best friends Dave Hatton who had suffered a heart attack on the Steyning Stinger the year before. He and his wife were back one year on to walk the half marathon route. As I hugged him and watched him greet the lady from St John’s Ambulance who had saved his life I felt very emotional and the determination kicked in, as part of me was also doing this for him.

As we waited for Mark to finish his tea, the rest of the joggers arrived and we headed over to the muddy field and small tent which is the start line. They counted us down from 10 and we were finally off. The first couple of miles were hard and undulating as everyone settled into their own pace and Daren disappeared into the horizon. As I chatted to my fellow runners Colin, Pugs, Les and Mark the first 6 miles seemed to go by relatively easily. They were very challenging, muddy and hilly but we seemed to be doing well. Unfortunately Les took a bit of a tumble on a particularly muddy track and was worried about her hamstring from then on. After the two biggest hills (which go on for miles) I found myself at the top of Chanctonbury Ring with just Colin and Pugs. We forced ourselves at the cut off point, around 10.7 miles to take the right turn to continue on the marathon route rather then the half route which turned back to Steyning.

From then on my legs started to tell me that I had run quite far already but I was absolutely determined to get as far as I could. As we passed more and more friendly marshal points with water, biscuits and mars bar pieces on offer it really started to get tough. The 5 mile loop around Cissbury that had seemed easy on our practice run back in November was feeling hard and now every hill seemed to go on forever. As I got to the marshal point for the second time on the loop I noticed Colin and Pugs were a little way behind me. They waved me on and I then realised that I had to do the next 10 miles or so on my own. Something I hadn’t even considered would happen (apart from if I had got left behind – which had been one of my fears!) I carried on and reached the highdown 3 mile loop. A rather grueling section where I was for the most of it alone with only a couple of other runners in sight. I was so happy to see my brother’s friendly face at mile 21 who told me to ‘get a biscuit down me’ and keep going!

The next section was one of the hardest I have experienced running. The pain from my previous calf/knee injury really kicked in and I now know what the meaning of ‘hitting the wall’ feels like. I started to feel very light headed and my legs felt like they had lead bricks attached to them so I knew I had to get a gel down me. (disgusting at the best of times!) My legs somehow kept moving and I was then greeted by Amanda Player at the top of the final hill. She beamed at me and gave me a big hug (although I now realize I must have been horribly sweaty – sorry Amanda!) I was then also cheered on by Lorna and her husband. This unexpected HJ support really got me through those difficult miles and I thank everyone who came out to support. The final few miles and muddy fields were hard. A cheerful Simon cheered us on at mile 25 and it was only then that I actually let myself believe that I was going to make it to the magical 26.2.

As I turned the corner into the last field, I saw my family, Dave Hatton and his wife who had stayed on to see me finish. I crossed the line with my four year old twins and the feeling was amazing. Daren was already there waiting for us all and not long after Hugh, Colin, Pugs, Mark and Les crossed the line. We had all made it and I can honestly say that without all the support of HJ and my family over the past few months I would never have thought it possible. Hugh’s legendary Saturday morning runs really help you to get the miles in and with the guidance of guys like Mark Skilton and Paul Crowe I had proved to myself that I could do it. I would say to anyone considering training for a trail marathon to give it a go. You never know, you may actually enjoy it. I know I did. Beachy next anyone…?