Robin Hood Half and Full Marathon 13th Sep 2009

Not blogged for a while so thought had better do seeing as it was a fairly big race we did on Sunday!

Ideal weather conditions - cloudy, cool and nice breeze so we knew we wouldn't be able to use that as an excuse if we didn't do a PB today. We travelled down to Nottingham the day/night before and stopped at the Holiday Inn which turned out to be in an ideal location (well done Liz!).

Liz and I ran together (unfortunately, we lost Jackie before the start). We'd picked up pace bands from the Lucozade stand of '4 hr 20' and decided we'd at least like to get 4hr 23 so that each of us would do a PB (Liz and I).

It took us 7 minutes to cross the start line (couldn't even see it to begin with) and finally we were off along with a record number of runners. Nearly 2,000 signed up for the full marathon whilst 11,500 took part in the half marathon. It all started at the same time.

The half marathon was hilly through the city centre but we managed to get to the half way point at our target time of 2hrs 9 mins. The second half of the course was as different to the first half as could be, flat and round a boating lake. I started slowing, unfortunately, at about 14/15 miles and Liz gradually started pulling away and I didn't have the energy to keep up with her - must be all her cross training hard classes at the gym? There was a strong headwind for at least 1 and half miles from about mile 20/21 which was really tough and there were loads of people walking (even on the half they were walking). I managed to run the whole way.

At mile 24 I realised I was still on target at 4 hours which was a nice surprise to me as I thought I'd blown it, so I buckled down to get a PB. I put a spurt on and although my quads and legs had really had enough at this point I managed to do 10 min mile for mile 25 and 9 and half for the mile 26 (have to say this felt like 8 minute miling at this point).

For the last little bit I sprinted to the end and finished in 4 hrs 20 mins and 37 secs. Liz managed a fantastic 4 hrs 15 mins and 57 secs so was well chuffed. Jackie finished 3 hrs 59 and 37 secs. I'd got a PB by about four and half minutes and Liz had done it by a whopping 8 minutes!

Have to say if the weather had have been as hot as the Saturday it would have been a totally different story.

Only 1325 did the full marathon out of those 2000 that had applied - Meg said she saw a lot pulling out at the half marathon point... was tempting I must admit.

Karl and Dave completed the half marathon in 1hr 59 mins 20 and 1 hr 52 respectively - well done you two!

I’ll just add that we couldn't have done it without Meg to help us - especially at the end when we couldn't even walk. She's up for hire if anyone needs a great support team for a race!