Brighton Half Marathon - 2nd Female
So it's here, race day! Do I feel ready? No! but I knew it should be a decent training run, I just needed to run hard! I went out a bit too quick at the start, after a mile I realised I was in 3rd female position. After the turnaround point a few miles in, I was quite close to Sarah Hill who was in 2nd position, but as we turned, I knew it was the long stretch to Hove Lagoon with the wind against me. It wasn't pleasant at all, Sarah was getting further and further out of reach and I was running solo against the wind for a while. Near the King Alfred, a group of guys overtook me and I made big effort to try and run with them, I stayed with them for a while and it felt like we were pushing on, I overtook Sarah so I was now in 2nd female position, this felt good but could I hold on to it? I reached the turnaround point and I knew that the wind would be behind me all the way to the finish line, I tried to push on as much as I could, although I was in 2nd place, I know Sarah will work hard all the way to the end. I just kept thinking of the finish line, I could feel myself really tiring, it was really hurting in the last couple of miles, then a mile to go, I could hear people shouting "go on girls!" - which meant Sarah was close behind me, she overtook me and I wanted to let her go, I felt done! but i really wanted it today and I wanted to give it my all, I managed to run a 5:58 last mile and I crossed the finish line as 2nd female with Sarah close behind. A great run from Sarah who is currently training for ultra's, a really lovely lady who I raced against a few times now. I wasn't pleased with my time as it was a few minutes down from my half marathon PB but considering the little niggles I've had recently and the wind on the day, I was pleased with 1:21. I got a nice sweatshop voucher as a prize, and a nice sparkly diamond trophy!