Event 37 of 40

Date: 25/09/2016

Run: Forest of Dean Half Marathon

Distance: 13 Miles

Time taken: 01:57:59

Memory of Event: Autumn run in the beautiful forest.

http://www.forestofdean-halfmarathon.co.uk/autumn

It has been a while since I have ran the Half Marathon Distance, and I have been so busy doing all my other events, that I was very aware of how potentially unprepared for this distance I was, this Event had been hanging over me slightly. I had managed a few runs of around 10 miles, but I really felt that I had not done enough, and I was worried.

It was a lovely fresh autumn morning, almost perfect temperature for running as I arrived at the Forest of Dean.There was around 700 runners doing this Event this morning, so not too busy, or too crowded for out on the forest Trails. I had previously looked at the run profile, and I had noted that the first few miles were downhill, followed by a rather long uphill. I decided to start quick, and enjoy the down hill part first, before the long slog set in. Looks can be deceiving I thought, as the first 2 miles were a bit more undulating than actually downhill. As the route started to descend, properly, I knew my times were quick, and I was cautious of over pushing it at the beginning, but I was keen, and it was nice to see the miles ticking by.

Inevitably, with every down their is an up. The run started to climb, and it went on for quite a few miles, it wasn’t overly steep in gradient, in fact it was quite a nice gradient, it just went on, and then on! I do tend to favor going up hills, than down, I am a bit strange like that, so I used my strengths to push up the hills, and at this point I was still feeling fresh, and strong. As I passed the 10K mark, I realised that I would of been pleased with that as a 10K time, and I was nearly half way now.

The run headed down again, and it was lovely running along the forest trails, and enjoying the lovely autumn day, as the trees were in their peak of changing colour, leading to a lovely scenic picture.

As predicted, just before 10 miles I started to to tire, and I began to  find it tough, really tough. We had started to head up again by this point, a long hard slog up. My legs were tired, and my feet were really starting to hurt. It hurt. 3 more miles I thought, that is all. I kept myself going, again up a hill, with not too hard a gradient,but seemed to drain my already tired legs. Finally we started to descend, and I managed to gather some energy for the final bit, inspired by the end being in sight!

I crossed the line, and I was delighted to finish in under 2 hours, with not as much training as I would of liked, and on a relatively hilly course I was very pleased with that!