Hope everyone had a lovely Easter! Can’t believe it’s April already. This half marathon is sneaking up on me a lot quicker than I thought it would, only eight weeks to go! Thankfully I got a few good runs in over the last week and am finding my feet again with the training.
A few weeks ago when I was training hard and it was going well I was planning on entering two races over the bank holiday, but unfortunately after the couple of bad weeks training and not feeling the best I didn’t manage to do what I’d hoped!
Friday was an 8k race in Emo court and I was really looking forward to it but all last week I really struggled to run, Wednesday evening I just about managed 2.5k before getting a cramp and Thursday I managed a slow 5k so I really wasn’t feeling confident for Friday. I debated whether to do the race over and over, my biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to finish it!
But on Friday morning I decided to go for it! What’s the worst thing that can happen? I have to walk for part of it? I end up coming in last place? I realised I needed to put my pride aside and just give it a shot, if it didn’t go the way I wanted at least I tried!
So I did it, the weather was perfect for a run and it was lovely to soak up a race atmosphere again! There was a big crowd running and I didn’t really know anyone but a couple of minutes before the start my husband surprised me by arriving with Charlie to cheer me on, it was just the boost I needed!! I was chatting to them as it started and Charlie tried to chase me for a bit so I started the race at the very back but that suited me fine as I was just hoping to finish it and not much more. But as the race went on I slowly moved up the crowd, it was quite a hilly run which I’m not used to at all so that was a bit of a challenge, but all in all it was great to be out running with a crowd again plus the hills are great for my training! I finished the race in 44 mins and was so delighted!! There’s nothing like a race to have you feeling great for the day!
The Edenderry 10mile was on Monday and I’d wanted to do that too but unfortunately I just wasn’t feeling confident enough for that distance on the day, along with the fact that it was a really busy weekend for my husband work wise it just seemed like the best option to leave it.
I went for a 10k myself on Easter Monday and did it at the pace that felt most comfortable to me on the day, surprisingly I ended up getting my PB for that distance!! I have to say I was disappointed I didn’t go the 10 mile after, especially when I saw the pictures of the race on Facebook, it was such lovely weather and looked like a great day but that’s just the way things go sometimes!
