I've had a go at 'running' (more of a jogger really!) a few times. In 2009 I was quite chuffed when I went from not being able to run for more than 2 minutes to being able to run 5km without stopping for Race for Life for Cancer Research. I carried on going on a few jogs for a while after that but once training to be a teacher and then moving on to my first job it never really happened again. I've attended Zumba classes quite frequently for the past few years so haven't been a complete couch potato.
Last summer my eldest sister, Kate, easily persuaded me to sign up for the Bristol 5km Race for Life. A couple of months before I set out on my first training run and managed about 1km before feeling out of breath and completely horrid. Oh dear. Over the next month or so I trained hard alone - made a lot easier by mild summer evenings - and could pretty comfortably run 5km in time for the race. On the actual day of the event it was bloody hot but we powered on and got round in a fairly respectable 37ish minutes. Woohoo! This time I carried on with the training and hence found myself clicking the register button for the Reading Half Marathon last August.
At this point I will mention something that my family are probably sick of hearing about. My right knee. As a teen I was pretty active and enjoyed playing football and hockey as well as representing my school at cross country and athletics events. I went through a few phases where my right knee gave me discomfort and it also made a crackling sound sometimes. My GP sent me for an X-RAY and no problems were apparent. He diagnosed me as having 'Crepitus' and suggested I do 100 leg raising exercises a day. I think I did them about five times over the next year. Anyway, the discomfort was rare and I lived with it.
Back to last summer, I wanted to do a good job on the Hyde Park 10km and was running a few times a week in preparation. I never followed a particular training plan and just tried to up my distance a bit each time. I was never driven by beating my own times. The furthest I ran before the 10km was 8km about a week before and, on this run, my right knee felt abit 'niggly'. Nothing painful, but just a niggly feeling that it wasn't perfect.
A week or so later it was too early on Saturday morning and Mum, Dad, Kate, Dave (bro-in-law), Harry and Charlie (nephews) all piled in to the Quasqai and set off for Hyde Park for my first longer race. It was a well organised event with an organised warm up, DJ, friendly volunteers and timing tags. It wasn't very busy and I think this was because the Royal Parks Half Marathon was taking place on the Sunday. We set off and I took it steady as always. I wasn't carrying a drink with me as I've never found it particularly comfortable and never felt very thirsty on shorter distances. All was going well and I was enjoying it. The race involved 2 laps of a marked course. My other sister, Laura, and her hub seemed to pop out of a bush at around 2km and cheered me on. I gave the other family members a wave as I passed them around 4km. I felt great crossing the 5km mark. Some people were stopping here as they were in the 5km race but quite a few had carried on too. This was also the point to pick up a drink. Water was in white plastic cups and I choked as I tried to drink from this stupid thing whilst still running. I had a couple of gulps and chucked it away. Somewhere between 6-7km the right knee niggle kicked in and I also felt really thirsty. Like a guardian angel my Mum appeared and trotted along beside me whilst I had a drink that she provided. Well done Mum. Don't think she had run since 2004 when she nearly missed a bus in Austria on holiday. About 1km later and my knee really was hurting, not just niggling. I was really determined to RUN 10km. Not walk/run 10km. I probably should have stopped and walked but did not. I bumped into the whole family at around the 8km mark and was in a lot of pain. My bro-in-law Andy decided to join me in his Converse and jeans and kept me going until the end even though I really felt like walking. Thanks Bruv! So in summary: aerobically felt good, knee killed by the end, hobbled around Knightsbridge for the rest of the day. Knee eased off a few days later but half marathon training never really began like it should have if I was going to achieve a time of less than 2 hours. Darn!
Christmas holidays rolled around. I'd done a handful for 4-5km runs since Hyde Park and my knee had hurt if I went much beyond these distances. I was wondering whether I'd actually be able to complete the half marathon whilst my family rightly nagged me to see a doctor or physio to seek advice. A combination of being really busy and naturally disorganised meant I still hadn't got round to booking anything in. We were celebrating Christmas in Bristol at Kate and Dave's house. The fizzy stuff was flowing on Christmas Eve and we were talking half marathons. At some point Andy decided to tell Laura (my sister, his wife) something along the lines of 'you'd never do a half marathon!'. Much to her dislike! January 1st turned up and Laura was signed up and ready to go! Running trainers and water bottle purchased. It meant I definitely had to try and be ready to run it too. Sunday 2nd March wasn't far away and Laura hastily downloaded an 8 week novice training plan.
Training was enjoyable but pretty grim. It was January! Very few runs were dry and all of the weekday runs were done in the dark after work. I loved training with Laura. Even though we live 2 minutes walk from each other we don't always see each other very much in the week and training together meant we did. It was also harder to miss a run because the other person could nag. Sometimes we'd swap the Thursday run to a Friday and it was quite nice to shrug off the working week with a run. At the end of week 3 I had another downer when I didn't manage to make it 10km. Knee pain kicked in at about 7.5km and I felt like I'd gone backwards from the previous week. I managed to do the Week 4 weekday runs (6km and 7km) and missed the 12km run because I went to Plymouth for a weekend with Uni friends. There was lots of food and drink but also a good 16km of walking which I hoped partly made up for my lack of training. At the end of Week 5 I covered 11km with a bit of discomfort but not pain. I think Laura carried on and nailed 13km as per the plan. We'd made it to the end of the weekday runs for Week 6 and also Half Term. Woop! Laura and I headed up to Suffolk to join Mum and Dad on holiday on the Sunday. I had continued to do the knee exercises and did them twice a day when possible rather than just a 'before bed' session. On the Monday (first day of our holiday) we set out to try and hit 15km. I knew it would be a BIG challenge for me but we did it and without any knee pain! A miracle! Perhaps the Suffolk fresh air and coastal scenery helped. It certainly beat the views of Theale business park! We deviated from the plan slightly this week. Not only by enjoying the biggest afternoon tea ever at a posh hotel but also this...
Also, we only did one 8km run in Week 7 because we wanted to attempt the longest training run of 16km before we came home from holiday. My Dad tried to point out that he didn't need to sponsor us anymore because he'd already funded a 'training camp'. I couldn't quite believe it when I managed the final long 16km training run (just under 10 miles) with no pain or discomfort apart from general tiredness. It wasn't until this point that I really decided I would definitely be able to do the half marathon and really started pushing for sponsorship. Thanks to all chums for putting up with the begging by Facebook and text message! Week 8 of the plan involved eating lots and two short 4km runs. They felt like absolutely nothing and I realised how far I had progressed since Summer 2013. We also decided to invest in some proper exercise leggings (not attractive!) to match our swanky trainers and head bands...
The night before the race I went round to Laura's to sort out our running tops and BHF hearts with the details of why we were running. We posted this photo to Facebook in the hope that it would help friends and family recognise us when we might be looking our very worst!...
At this point Laura set into a bit of a panic. What time should we leave? Who was going in which car? Did Mum and Dad know what time to get there? Were Kate, Dave and the boys coming from Bristol and where would they meet us? Where would we leave our bags? Should we put them in the kit tent or would Andy be finished in the gym and able to take them from us before the start line? Where was the start line? Meanwhile I was feeling nervously excited and not worrying about much. Morning rolled around and Laura was nervously excited and I'd taken on the panic role. Is my knee going to hurt? How much peanut butter on toast should I eat? Shall I have a banana too? Should I drink a bottle of Lucozade? Should I try and go for another wee before we leave? Will there be anywhere to have a wee when we get there? Have I got my IPod? Then some friends sent these and I instantly felt happier...
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We spoke to Kate on the phone who couldn't make it due to illness and off we went.
Andy dropped us off and he headed to the gym. We made our way to Madejski Stadium where everything was kicking off. We went to the toilet a few hundred times and had a look at the finish line in the stadium trying to imagine crossing it later on....
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We headed towards the race village to drop off our kit bags and umm'd and ahh'd about whether to keep out hoodies on to stay warm or drop them off. Where was Andy? Where were our parents? Help?!?! We then realised we had to walk the long way round to the pink (slow) zone starting point, apparently the fatties can usually take a short cut but it was closed due to flooding. This would take about an extra 15 minutes and we hadn't warmed up in the slightest. I was in a bit of a panic and it became very clear that one sister panics in advance and one sister panics at the last minute! We'd also got a 'YOLO' style text from Kate saying that sod feeling ill, THEY WERE COMING! Not sure how fast they drove down the M4 from Bristol but never mind. It really cheered me up. Anyway, we made it to the start line, I had text the parents telling them exactly where to stand so we could lob hoodies at them. iPhone was in arm pack (so that people could track us), iPod stuck in there too and drinks bottle (a posh one!) in hand. I didn't feel like I'd warmed up enough though and nervously started trotting along.
THE RACE
To be fair, we weren't exactly racing, we were taking part. But we didn't want to come last. So perhaps we were racing. Everything felt steady and comfortable for the first few miles. We loved the atmosphere and there were lots of people supporting. We saw Mum and Dad near the start and managed to chuck hoodies at them. We were a bit nervous about the hill around 3 miles as we hadn't done any proper hill training. We reached it and just took it steady and managed it easily. Phew! Before we knew it we were around the 5 mile mark near the university and then heading down into town where we hoped to see some more friendly faces. The first we bumped into were Paul and Fi, work friends of mine, and they really spurred me on. I'm pretty sure they were both jumping up and down and shouting 'GO ON SUMNER' and it really picked me up. Next we saw our Uncle and Auntie near the Forbury. Again, it really made us smile. Paul and Fi popped up again having made a clever cut through Reading and we saw some of Laura's friends too. One of them took an attractive photo...
Laura seems to be enjoying it a lot more than me here. Read my next blog post to find out why!
Around the 7 mile mark and at the start of the second main hill we saw loads of friends and family outside the Nag's Head and they cheered us on impressively as we set off up the hill. Next we saw Sophie and Fran and their fab banners really cheered me up when I was feeling quite low...
We carried on to the Bath Road when we passed the biggest inspiration I've met in a while...Tony The Fridge. Find out more about him here: http://tonythefridge.com/
The miles did seem to be passing by at a nice speed now and we hit the A33. We had been warned about this point. You can see the Madejski Stadium in the distance and you think you are really close but then you kind of have to run away from it and then back towards it. This was the hardest part for me and I don't think I'd have carried on running (would have strolled a bit more) if it hadn't been for Laura encouraging me so much. She was amazing at sticking with me and jollying me along. Andy also popped up on his bike a few times here and willed us onwards. He also said that Kate, Dave and the boys were waiting for us at the stadium which was something to look forward to. The wind was against us on this long straight road and it was drizzling. You also pass people who have finished the half marathon and are walking back into town as you are still going. Slightly disheartening! We were checking our watches and were keen to get round in less than 2h30min but I was not sure I'd make it. Laura definitely would have if she'd been going at her own pace rather than dragging me along. I hoped I might get a bit of a final rush at the 12 mile mark to speed me up towards the finish line but I did not. We passed the whole family gang, cheering like mad, in the final mile but I was feeling awful. My legs were knackered but it was actually easier to keep moving them than to stop. Aerobically I felt exhausted too, as though my chest weighed about 4 stone. Even with about 500 yards to go I felt like stopping and Laura was shouting at me not to walk. "I'M DOING AS MUCH AS I @@@@ING CAN!" I yelled. With that, she ran off! NOOOOOOOOOO I thought. DON'T LEEEEEEAAAAAVVVVEEEE MEEEEEEE. I felt awful for my rudeness! Had she really legged it off to cross the finish line without me?? Of course she hadn't! She was jogging on the spot at the slope down into the stadium and as soon as I caught up I apologised for my outburst. We could hear the loudspeaker and see the finish line. Holding hands, we picked up speed and made it to the end. 2 hours 30 minutes 27 seconds. (Which totally rounds down to 2 hour 30 minutes!)
Here is our moment of glory.....
Just after crossing the finish line...
Lovely cuddles with Harry...
We were tired but so glad we had taken part! We'd also raised over £1,200 for the BHF in memory of our Grandad, Colin Lucas. I know that if we were running for any other reason and he was still alive he would have been cheering for us louder than anyone else <3
Well done and thank you if you've read this far! Some of my personal thoughts:
- I'm so glad I trained and ran with Laura. We had laughter and despair together on the rainy, freezing training runs. I didn't need to have any fear of her seeing my at my worst (aesthetically and emotionally/mentally) on the day because she loves me unconditionally.
- Running for someone/something important to me was amazing. I thought about my Grandad lots whilst training and on the day itself. It was lovely to remember him more than I might have in a normal year.
- If I had a bucket list something like this would be on it. As Sophie's banner suggests, it was also a New Year Resolution that I can tick off.
- I am now so certain that with a positive attitude, time and training anybody else I know could achieve the same. I feel proud that I decided to do something, found out the effort required, made the effort and achieved the goal. If you've always ummm'd and ahhh'd about doing something like this then you are just like me a year ago. Go for it. You will do it and feel proud of yourself!
- If I had a bucket list something like this would be on it. As Sophie's banner suggests, it was also a New Year Resolution that I can tick off.
- I am now so certain that with a positive attitude, time and training anybody else I know could achieve the same. I feel proud that I decided to do something, found out the effort required, made the effort and achieved the goal. If you've always ummm'd and ahhh'd about doing something like this then you are just like me a year ago. Go for it. You will do it and feel proud of yourself!
- Do you have to run the whole thing or worry if you don't do it in a good time? NO! I was more impressed by the determination I saw in the over weight, struggling, slow and late finishers that I saw on the day than I was the person who won.
- Will I do something like this again? Yes.
Now, some practical tips based on our experience:
DO:
- Find an appropriate training plan, stick it on your fridge and avoid excuses.
- Train with someone else if you're worried about giving up.
- Train with someone else if you're worried about giving up.
- Buy some decent trainers. I went to SweatShop and had an assessment where my trainers were matched to my running style. Pricey but worth it.
- Set up a good playlist. Personal taste applies but I find the following artists get me through: Avicii, Bastille, Calvin Harris, David Guetta, Flo Rida, Florence + The Machine, Girls Aloud, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, The Killers, La Roux, The Lumineers, McFly, Mumford & Sons, One Direction, Starship, Supergrass, Taylor Swift, The Vaccines and Westlife.
- Use an app such as Map My Run to track your distances and keep a log of your training. And show it off on social media if you thing you deserve a pat on the back.
- Set up an app such as 'Find my Friends' for race day so that friends/family can track your progress on the day and know when to expect you to run by.
- Seek professional advice on injuries (now i know!)
- BIGGEST TIP: Get friends and family strategically positioned on the race route. It was the biggest thing (apart from Laura) that spurred me on. Thanks SO MUCH to anyone that supported. If I ever know anyone that is doing a distance run for the first time in the future I will definitely get out and support them.
- Soak up the atmosphere, enjoy it, make yourself smile even if you feel horrific and it will actually help you. Remember why you're running too!
* Possibly more to be added to this list!
DON'T:
- Skip the cross-training part of the training plan. I didn't do enough of this and I think it would have helped me tonnes in the last few miles when my chest felt bad. I wasn't fit enough!
- Use the race as an excuse to eat loads for the next few weeks after the half marathon. I fell into a horrible habit and now feel less fit and more chubby! I've been trying to get back into training and am comfortably running about 6-7km (with no knee pain). BUT I ran 21km a month or so ago :( I probably should have set my next goal/event sooner. I'm working on something at the moment though....
* Possibly more to be added to this list too!
PERSONAL THANKS TO....
- All family and friends who sponsored and supported
- Laura
- Alex Whearity for being a bit of an inspiration to me! Not sure he knows it.
- Sam Parker - for answering tonnes of my questions based on his own half marathon fun!
- Soph and Fran for those beautiful banners!
- Kate for being there despite feeling naff! Meant a lot!
xxxxx
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