Keep On Running.
The finale.
So, if you haven’t already heard…I RAN THE CARDIFF HALF
MARATHON!! I did, I bloody did it.
Who’d have thought, ey? The chubby kid did good. She did two
hours and fifteen minutes good and I’m yet to come down of cloud thirteen point
one.
Where to begin?
If I begin at the beginning I will have missed out a bit so
I’ll start from the moment my eyes pinged wide open at ridiculous o clock.
Nerves, excitement and the quaffed Chinese and cheesecake combination had me
ready for action approximately two hours before my alarm was due to go off.
And then as sods law goes I dropped back off into a lovely
slumber five minutes before the damn thing hooted that it was the morning of
the Cardiff half marathon and I’d
have to get my twitching arse up out of bed.
It is safe to say I spent a frantic half hour preparing for
battle…you know the score; Vaseline, more Vaseline and surprise surprise more
Vaseline!
Now if I mention that it was ‘cold’ on Sunday morning I’d be
telling a lie. It was effin freezing. Literally. The car windscreen was coated
in what looked like a good two inches of frost. Of course it was only a slither
really but I was playing the role of drama queen down to a T.
‘I’m doomed.’ I had wailed, swaying in the darkness of a Sunday
morning.
‘Your fine.’ Scotty Boy assured me flinging warm water over
Jesus’s windscreen. And true to his word I was, the car was, everything was,
just fine.
Scotty Boy then dropped me off at Junior Mee’s, that’s Antony
by the way. Remember Antony ? The
one who emailed me whilst I was under the influence of Mexico ’s
finest cocktails; ‘Yes, I’ll join a running tem, that sounds fun…hiccup.’
I don’t remember much about the trip to the city only the
child lock palaver and the M people conversation which I won’t go into now for
sanity reasons above all else.
I don’t know what was more traumatising when we got to the
runners village, using the portaloo, seeing the other eighteen thousand runners
or having to take my jacket off. Seriously, it was freezing. I was pretty much blue as we made our way
through various shapes and sizes towards the castle for the national anthem and
the start of the 2012 Cardiff half
marathon.
Gavin actually said the words ‘turkey drummer’ when I held
my arm out.
And then before I knew it, before I had time to realise what
I’d potentially got myself into, we were off, just like that. I was embarking
on thirteen miles in the city for my first half marathon.
I took the run at my own pace, after loosing Geraint in the
first fifteen seconds and then loosing Gav and Antony
around about mile two. This meant I lost
my team pretty much straight away and I realised I’d made a vital mistake by
not having my headphones within the first two miles, I also realised my phone
and everything else I’d brought with me was in Antony’s bag and if I didn’t
find my team I’d be lost in the city for the rest of my life! Back to the lack
of headphone malarkey; there’s something quite off putting hearing people pant
and splutter around you whilst your concentrating on not falling over, not
bumping into people and how cold it was, but I suppose it was all a bit of a
learning curve and from now on I will have my Ipod or MP3 player on me ALWAYS!
The route was lovely. That’s all I can say on it. There were
a few inclines scattered throughout but all in the entire ‘thing’ was very
pleasant and I’ll be brutally honest, I didn’t find it all that taxing. In
fact, I had another two miles in me for sure.
Like I said; I didn’t push myself, I wasn’t sauntering by
any means but I took it nice and easy. I overtook the man wearing a boat and
the man with the ironing board on his back so I was quite pleased on that
front.
I have to give the girl who had ‘Eye of the Tiger’ screaming
from her window as I passed a massive shout out! You made me very happy not to
mention a little faster.
I do have to mention that I now hate Roath
Park Roath Park
Finishing was amazing. The crowds, the atmosphere,
absolutely everything was brilliant and I cannot wait to do it all again next
year. In fact, myself and my team will be doing another one in March. Yes, we
are undertaking a brand new half marathon in Newport !
I believe we have created a monster but it was nice for morale to share it with
the boys and I’d like to say a massive thank you to the three of them. It was
fun.
(We’ve got a ballot system thing on the go now for anyone
who wants to join our little running team! So, if we’ve inspired you to run;
piss off!) (That’s a joke by the way.)
After the run things went down rapidly. Scotty ‘I know all
the back roads of Cardiff’ got a £70 parking ticket and then got lost trying to
get out of the city, then the cheeky shit of a boy, whilst ironing his shirt,
actually muttered; ‘God, my legs are stiff, must be because I stood in the same
place for two hours.’ My reply consisted of words that are probably not
appropriate for the blog!
I had just run thirteen miles and he was complaining about
his legs being stiff! Nice one Scotty Boy!
So, this is it for the blog. The finale, the end of the
road. I kept on running and got exactly where I wanted to be.
I’d like to thank absolutely every single reader, every
single mutter of encouragement I’ve had and in general thank the entire
universe for making me shape up and ship out onto the pavement.
Now, like I’ve said it’s the finale to ‘Keep on Running’ but
it’s the start for ‘Run to the Hills!’ so keep tuned butties and for Christ sake
KEEP ON RUNNING!
Love
Hannah
Also its not too late to donate now i've completed the run!
No comments:
Post a Comment