Our first race

The day dawned stormy and windy, with ominous looking black clouds all around. We had breakfast, got the kids sorted and then drove over to Tewkesbury, dropping Daisy with my mum, and Jamie with Wayne's mum. We then pinned on our numbers and walked to the start line. It was very busy as there were around 1000 competitors doing the half marathon, and 300 or so doing the fun run.

The half marathon started at 9.30am and then it was our turn to line up. That's when the nerves really kicked in and the doubts about whether I could actually do it. Wayne had said he'd run with me for the first couple of miles and then might go off ahead if he felt able to, but in the end he started at a much faster pace than me and was very quickly disappesring off into the distance. I wasn't tempted to try and keep up as I could see my pace on my Runkeeper app, and it was already faster than I usually started.

So we ran through the town and out through Newtown with the half marathon runners, and I caught a few of them up and ran with them. There were lots of people lining the Ashchurch Road and clapping, which spurred me on a bit, but I felt pretty sluggish right from the outset, and then started getting a stitch. We turned towards Northway and then the half marathon runners went one way, and we went the other, back towards town. At this point I was running pretty much on my own, and into the very strong wind, so it was a long and lonely stretch and I was finding it pretty hard. As we went through Mitton, a lady caught me up and asked if I thought we'd done 4 miles yet. I could see from Runkeeper that we were only on about 3.4 miles! I tried to stay with her for a while but eventually she pulled away.

Once I reached the High Street, I knew the finish wasn't too far away and I felt a bit better, but I knew I was going slow and already felt disappointed with my performance. I turned onto the Vineyards and could see the finish, and sped up a bit as I ran past Wayne's mum and Jamie, and then a bit further on I saw Wayne, my mum and Daisy. I went through the finish in 51.40 which was a PB for me - although according to Runkeeper, the route was a little less than 5 miles. I picked up my medal and goodie bag, and then found Wayne, who gave me a big hug to say well done. He had really pushed himself, and finished in 43 minutes, which was a really excellent time.

I admit I felt a bit gutted that I didn't do better, but I enjoyed the experience and I think I've been bitten by the race bug and want to do more - and get faster. So I'm planning to enter the 10K Race for Life in July, and (eeek!) the Cheltenham half marathon in September. I'm really excited about putting together a training programme and trying to push myself - so that I finish those races feeling 100% proud of my performance, rather than feeling a bit disappointed.

EDITED TO ADD: A couple of days after the race I came down with the cough/cold that the kids have had an almost completely lost my voice - so I think that might be why I found it so hard on Sunday.