The Bath Half

Two weeks ago today team 'now we are three' completed the Bath Half marathon. The sun shone for us, they music played and the atmosphere was amazing.

Lizzi was setting out with the pros and celebs and aiming to beat her previous Bath Half time of  1:48:45. (She started next to Russel Howard). My plan was just to get round and Richard's plan was to run with me to make sure I did that! It was like having my own personal trainer next to me all the way :) 

A huge cheer told us that the race had officially started. We couldn't see the start at this time and continued to shuffle forward with thousands of other people.  But just over 9 minutes later and we crossed that line. Within the first mile you get to the brow of a downhill stretch and so have full view of the thousands of people in front of you. Runners for as far as the eye could see.  No danger of going off too fast!

My feet hurt by mile five and we were overtaken on mile 6 by Darth Vader but we kept going and in fact we both knew we had Cheshire Cat grins pretty much all the way round. On the first lap just over a mile in, I noticed a spectator was holding out a board with a big pink spot on it that said 'Hit the spot to power up.' As We turned the corner to start our second lap of the circuit, I decided that if she was still there I'd be hitting that spot! I was totally loving the high fives with all the children along the way.  It was so much fun. Turning the corner at the end of the Upper Bristol Road to head back in towards town was such a great moment. It felt like the home straight and we were running at quite a pace (for me). The lead singer of the band at the far end of the Lower Bristol Road shouted, "Come on, you've trained for this, we haven't." I loved the sign that declared 'blisters are in this year' and one that said 'Go Mum'.  They kept me going, as did my personal trainer, each time he said 'How are you doing, shall we give it a little more?'

We did manage to up the gear a bit every now and then as the mileage went up and the distance to that finish line came down.  It was only on mile 12, which for me was uncharted territory, that I said to Rich, "This feels hard now." I think he said "It's meant to be hard. It's a half marathon! We pushed on up the hill just keeping the pace as best I could and Rich staying with me. I said,"There's no way I can sprint at the end." "Don't worry, we already are." We turned the corner and we could see the finish line. I felt as though I couldn't believe it was coming to the end. I had been so nervous about it before I started - but I loved every minute of it - all 2 hours 15.35 minutes of it.

Lizzi beat her time, coming in at 1:48:10 (and in front of Russel Howard and Greg James. And not only that she has already run another half marathon on Cardiff yesterday. Would I do it again?

The whole experience was thoroughly enjoyable and I am itching to do another one.

So team 'now we are three' may well run again  or maybe the team will grow to become four.  We have some takers!