Sixteen weeks ago, I said I would run the 2023 Surrey Half Marathon, and yesterday, I did it!
I have always thought that half marathons are about three miles too long, and that hasn't really changed, although yesterday it was only the last 3km that was really brutal. So brutal that when I crossed the finish line I almost cried with relief! Mostly with the relief that I didn't ever have to do another half marathon!
Compared to my last (fairly disastrous) Surrey Half Marathon in 2018, I was in good shape. I had actually trained and had increased my long runs to 18km. So I knew I could get round, even if it wasn't going to be pretty. I was hoping for a pace of between 7:15 and 7:30 per km and averaged 7:18 so it was a good result for me. My finish time of 2 hours 34 minutes was almost bang in the middle of my 2017 time of 2 hours 18 minutes and my 2018 time of 2 hours 48 minutes (as I said, disastrous).
I even had a race strategy which was to walk for 30 seconds after every 2km, in order to give my legs a short respite from relentless running. I almost abandoned this strategy when at 2km I didn't feel like stopping to walk so just kept going, optimistically thinking I might just run the whole way! Luckily, sanity prevailed and I reminded myself that deviating from how I trained was a flipping stupid thing to do!
But actually, was yesterday really that important? No, it really wasn't.
When reflecting on Saturday about the race ahead, and wondering why on earth I had entered yet another half marathon given that I hate half marathons, I realised that the race was just the end of a journey.
And the journey itself brought many good things:
- I lost almost 6kg. Helped by my gym running a 6 week accountability challenge conveniently leading up to the half!
- I adopted some really good and healthy habits, and started to view food as fuel.
- I did lots of long runs, the most memorable/enjoyable of which were running round Virginia Water, and arranging to bump into Lou, my sister in law, on the Downs Link on our last long training run.
- Short runs became much easier.
- My parkruns got faster by around 2.5 minutes, with a time of 31:35 for my most recent parkrun.
So for the above, I thank my brother Andy whose idea it was to enter the half in the first place. Even if he ended up not actually running it and he and Rob went for a lovely breakfast whilst Lou and I were running! Apparently, there was an injury involved ...
What do I like about the Surrey Half Marathon? It has to be the people, seeing so many familiar faces amongst the runners and such fabulous support along the route. Thank you to the team at the last water stop when I felt I had my own cheerleading squad at a time when everything was just starting to get hard!
So, will I ever run another half marathon? At around 11 miles yesterday I made a resolution to never enter another half marathon. But today, I begin to waiver. Maybe one day, when I've lost a bit more weight, when 10km races just get ridiculously easy, when pigs start flying? Definitely not for a while at least, but never say never.
Right now I am very much looking forward to running a few 10km races and to the Great South Run in October. Given a half marathon is about three miles too long, the Great South Run at ten miles is pretty perfect!
But first, a new goal, which is to get back to running sub 30 minute parkruns. Having this goal will help ensure that I keep up all the good habits and don't slide back into the unhealthy ones. Being held accountable will be key to this so thank you to Kirsten for agreeing to keep me on track and of course this blog helps!
I'll let you know how I get on!
