(First) mission accomplished

Well, after 3 months of trudging round the streets of South London in the freezing cold darkness, it all proved worth it as I completed the Reading Half Marathon on Sunday.

It was a success - I finished in under 2 hours (1hr 56) which was my goal before I started. I maintained an almost completely even pace throughout as well, despite the fact my right leg was in a fair amount of pain from the 8th mile - a mere 5 from home. Was a wee bit annoyed that my legs couldn't take it - I'd run much further than 8 miles in training and hadn't felt anything, and was pretty much cruising apart from that. My plans to speed up in the second half of the race were scuppered, but I kept going til the end and finished to the cheers of a pretty packed Madjeski Stadium. I wasn't quite sure why everyone started cheering as I came into the finishing straight, before noticing that there was a guy pushing someone else in a wheelchair just in front of me..... What can I say, at least I beat the pantomime camel!

The whole day was really well organised, the route was challenging but enjoyable and I'm already planning on doing another half marathon at some point in the near (post-rally) future. I'm in awe of full marathon runners now though - I couldn't bend my right leg for the whole of Sunday and felt like I'd been on the piss the whole weekend come Monday. There is absolutely no way I could have done double the distance.

Thanks to everyone who sponsored me prior to the race - the thought of the money raised for Go Help really spurred me on when the going was getting tough.

And for those of you who wondered - Colin beat me, despite his boozing over the weekend. I was maybe 30 seconds behind him at the halfway point, and assumed I'd overtake him before the end; how wrong I was. He managed to put in an impressive burst of speed in the final 10k which gave him time to stop for a piss and still beat me by 9 full minutes. Euan, predictably, destroyed both of us by coming home in a bloody impressive 1hr 37. A good morning's work all round, I think you'll agree.

There are some rather embarrassing photos of me during and after the race, along with a video of my finish (just behind the dude with the wheelchair) on the Marathon Photos website here:

http://www.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event_entry.py?event=Sports/CPUK/2010/Reading%20Half%20Marathon;match=1491

I wasn't grinning like an idiot the whole way round by the way - I spotted a couple of the cameras and tried to give the impression I was enjoying myself - which is largely true.....

Certainly, the sight of several people collapsing with exhaustion and heatstroke towards the end was sobering, and made me realise that, "3rd from 3" or not, it was an achievement just to finish.