And how did I do?? I did GOOD!!! I ran it all, NON STOP. It was amazing. Horrifically painful and exhausting, and by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. But I did it; in 1.48 minutes.
Official stats:
Overall Position: 8997
Age Group Position: 4193
Gender Position: 3024
Age Group and Gender Position: 1537
Finish Time: 01:48:22
5k Time: 00:32:55
10k: 01:06:43
15k: 01:40:40
So when you consider 19,500 people were running it, I did pretty well. AND I was literally one of the last people to cross the starting line. There were some Army guys pulling a range rover right at the back, and I was just in front of them when I crossed the start. So to finish in overall place of 8997, means that I overtook almost 10,000 people during the run! Which doesn't sound possible, but it is!
The whole thing was horrendous. The first couple of miles were okay, but tricky because there was such a high volume of people, the hardest thing was to keep a steady pace because you kept on getting stuck in bottlenecks. Then after about 3 miles I got a really bad stitch, which lasted until about the 6 mile mark.
Then I passed Tom who was cheering for me at 6 miles, which was really nice, but the last four were so, so, so hard. I wasn't ever out of breath which was good. It was just the pure exhaustion, and pain in my legs, specifically my calf's. I kept on running and realised that actually, although I was in so much pain, I had reached the pain limit. At 7 miles I thought I couldn't go on, but then it dawned on me that actually, yes I was in horrific pain, but it wasn't actually any worse than it was at the 6 mile mark. So at least it wasn't getting any worse.
The last two miles were mentally the hardest. Mile 8 was tough, but you knew the end was in sight. Then mile 9 came around and I was able to tell myself that I wasn't running for the next mile marker, the next mile marker was the finishing line. But it was during mile 9 that I almost stopped running. It was weird, it was like my body decided it was going to stop. I hadn't been thinking about stopping, but suddenly my mind realised that my legs were about to stop. So it was like my body was doing it on it's own accord, then when my mind realised what was about to happen, I was able to give myself a good talking to! Very strange. I knew that I didn't want to stop running. I wasn't bothered about the time I did it in, I just wanted to run all 10 miles without stopping. And I did!!
I had to REALLY dig deep though. From mile 6 onwards I had to give myself little pep talks, telling myself to keep going, keep running, and come on! Unfortunately, the only way these had any positive effect was if I said them out loud, so I think some people around me must have thought I was mental. But it helped.
Then when I saw the finishing line it was amazing. I didn't think I could do it, then when I realised I was actually about to finish it, after running non stop, I got a little bit emotional. Then I finished the race and stopped running and oh boy, that's when the real pain kicked in!! I could barely walk. And then the tears started. Proper floods of them. I couldn't stop them, I was just so proud of myself.
This whole thing has shown me that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. I hadn't done nearly enough training, and if I had done more, it would have been a lot easier for me. But the fact is, I wasn't physically ready for it, but mentally I decided that I was going to just keep on running. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. And that's just what I did. The pain I was in (and am currently in now) will fade, but this feeling of accomplishment will be with me forever. It was definitely worth it, although I will be in no hurry to do a race like that again. But I will keep up a bit of running. I want to be able to do 3 miles easily now forever. 3 miles is just enough to get your heart going, but it can be done in 30 minutes so it's not long enough to bore you to death.
So if we look at my reasons for doing this from my first ever blog post. They were:
1. To cure my lazyitus: Well I think I can say that this has definitely got my bum off the sofa and has stopped me from being quite so lazy. I don't think I can say I'm cured as I'm a lazy sod at heart, but it's shown me that if I want something, even if it's hard (and I hate it), I can do it if I put my mind to it.
2. Getting fit and having a nice trim body: Well I've not been mistaken for Kylie yet, but I have definitely increased my fitness. When I started I couldn't run for 3 minutes without getting out of breath, and now I've just run for 1hr 48 minutes non stop. So yep, I can say that I am a lot fitter than when I started. And trimmer? Yes I think so. More toned for sure.
3. Personal achievement: Yes. This goes to the top of my list of personal achievements. I didn't honestly think I could do it. But I did!
And actually, I think writing this blog helped a lot. The fact that I knew people were reading it and following my progess meant that I couldn't just quit. It was also thinking that I would be able to write here 'I ran it non stop' that kept me going. I knew that as soon as I stopped, then I wouldn't be able to do that, and that was someting I really wanted.
So thank you to everyone for all your support, advice and just for reading this blog. I couldn't have done it without all your help.
And I will soon start a new hobby (when I've recovered from the pain I'm in at the moment), which I'll be blogging about. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but I will keep you posted.
I will also upload some videos when I can figure out how to do it! I might have to put them on You Tube then just link to them. I'll also add a link to the official photo's when they've been uploaded.
This was just after I crossed the finish line, and the floof gates opened!! See the pain on my poor face! I've never felt pain and exhaustion like it!!
Videos on You Tube:
