The moment of truth

Late in my update on my blog, reason? Disappointment tarnished what should have been my euphoric moment. Really hard to explain in words but after all the months training my target moved from sub-4 to sub 3.50, I never revealed this to anyone apart from Ellie at Barnes Fitness, my family and my training partner, Pete. I REALLY wanted the ‘good – for – age’ time so that I could run London again next year – ‘yes’ I know I said never again but never is a long time.

The race went completely to plan, my tracker was telling me my pace was spot on it was the distance that let me down – as I hit mile 1 the map my run voice confirmed a 8.35 minute/mile pace, the next mile the voice confirmed another 8.35 minute/mile pace but the 2 mile marker was about 50 metres away, this continued to happen for the rest of the race with the marathon mile markers becoming further and further away from the map my run tracker.

I knew then that really my target was really going to have to be sub-4, as I passed my family with 385 yards to go there was no stopping, no quick hug with my babies it was head down to the finish line – I was so close to coming in over 4 hours I had to keep pressing on.

After a few weeks to sit on it and review everything I am now really pleased that I knocked 21 minutes of my previous marathon time – proving that the extra training, the long runs all were worth it, the plan worked. I DID IT … 3 hours 58 minutes 57 seconds … just being able to say 3 hours fills me with pride and I am one happy lady …. not sure I will ever get over the disappointment I felt when searching through my goodie bag to discover no chocolate !!! And will never really understand how a ‘cook in the bag chicken thing ever found its way into the goodie bag!

So what’s next ? I still feel I am in recovery to be honest but as I sit here writing this it’s the night before my next challenge – the world’s largest assault course, the rat race dirty weekend http://www.ratracedirtyweekend.com/ 20 mile, 20 zones, 200 obstacles …. Yes I think this does confirm me as mad!

I am not sure what is next but I have a few challenges, targets and goals ahead some of which may see me back on the track where it all began 23 years ago but first its bedtime ready for the 5am alarm call.