Erewash half marathon

I took on the Erewash half marathon during August. The first thing that sets this apart from other events I've taken part in is that it was on a Saturday. I was actually glad of this on the morning and for the rest of the weekend after the run. It meant an additional day of getting up early as I had done for five days in a row for work and this was easier than having a longer sleep on Saturday and getting up early on the Sunday! It also meant runners had the whole weekend to recover...I was struggling Saturday afternoon so glad not to have work the following day!

I try and enter mostly off-road events and this half marathon was along a canal path so I thought it would be a good entry into the half marathon distance and would be semi-rural so not a totally built up environment. The course was completely flat due to being next to a canal and it was nice to see other people enjoying the tow path including lots of dog walkers and cyclists as well as admiring some of the canal boats.

The event was a point to point run, all the runners departed by bus from a leisure centre to the start line and basically ran back to the start line and where drivers had parked. I was slightly concerned at how long the bus journey took and that I was going to need to run that far back...

Setting off in waves based on your estimated finish time (!) I think I had optimistically suggested something un-achievable based on other people in my wave that I got talking to but I had nothing really to go on as an estimate. I met a kindred spirit in Arleen, an American lady who was in my wave and said that the good thing about a half marathon was that we could eat what we wanted for the rest of the day! We were both looking forward to a well-deserved pizza. 

StuWeb were the race organisers and I couldn't fault anything about the day. I paid in advance for my bus ticket which made it slightly cheaper and bibs were posted out in advance of the event along with race information.

I took my usual backpack mostly for fluids to keep me hydrated but also with a light jacket and cap as the weather was a bit undecided and stoma care supplies/loo roll/disposal bags. I think on this occasion it was a mistake to take the pack as over 13 miles it seemed to get heavier and heavier…I had a bit of back pain from probably mile 10 onwards and I feel this was due to the backpack. One runner whizzed past me asking if I had weights in the pack…my reply was that I felt like I had. The event was near residential areas and was advertised as having drinks stations every 3 miles. I should have trusted that the drinks stations would exist and relied on them for a good intake of fluids as well as thinking that if I had an issue with my stoma bag there wasn’t really anywhere to do anything about it as there weren’t any secluded country spots. If I did this event again I would just take a waist belt with 2 x 500ml bottles, my phone, car key and tissues.

Another mistake I made was looking forward to an electrolyte intake at the third drinks station. I drank a cup full of a mix and Arleen joined me for a cup she had watered down. I felt really sick soon after and didn’t know if it was because I hadn’t eaten enough as it was nearly lunchtime by this point or if it was just because my body wasn’t used to running that distance. I met Arleen after the finish line and she expressed that she felt nauseous after the drink too and that if you’re not used to a particular electrolyte mix/brand that it can make you feel like this, which is why she had watered hers down. I was really conscious to keep taking on fluids and at the last drinks station was saddened that they didn’t have any electrolyte drinks…this turned out to be a good thing as anymore may have actually made me sick!

There were lots of runners that were going for a run-walk-run technique and I think I could have got a better time if I had done this…all comes down to experience. I kept a good pace with a runner for the first few miles but she was clearly just more of a seasoned/well trained runner than I am at the moment as the distance between us just got greater and greater. I didn’t do enough long training runs before this event and I definitely did feel under prepared. I’m still glad I made it round the course though and I did do a slow plod the whole way round! I was hopeful for a time of under 2:30 but in the later stages I could see that this wasn't realistic, I'm aiming for this in the future with some actual training for longer distance events and working at keeping my pace consistent even as the miles increase.

Mile 8 and miles 11-13 were definitely the hardest. I felt that once I got to mile 9 I was near double figures but I hit a bit of a low point before then. From mile 11 onwards I felt physically quite sick and honestly thought someone had got the course wrong and I was running further than I should be. The end of this event takes you into a park to finish and you run parallel to the finish line before basically doing a big horseshoe to get back to it. So it was tough psychologically as I could see the finish line but also knew how far it was to get to it – unless you cheated!

Official photos were available to download after the event and although there was ones of me looking cheerier than the one on this post I chose this one because it’s my approach to the finish line and I feel shows how hard I was working to get there! I do wear my heart on my sleeve and obviously looked a broken woman when I got to the drinks station post finish line as a volunteer commented on what hard work it looked like it had been for me…clearly I didn’t make it look like a walk in the park but for me it wasn’t. I want to look back at this photo and think about the grit and determination it took to get past the finish line and not break down and just cry which is what I really wanted to do. Although flat this was without a doubt the hardest event I’ve done to date and my face in this photo definitely reveals that!

I was pretty much wiped out for the rest of the weekend – maybe that will get better as I get more experience of longer runs or maybe that’s just how I will always feel after a longer distance given that I am fatigued most of the time.

Worth it for the medal, t shirt and pride that I’d completed the distance though.

Highlights from the day: The medal and t shirt, friendly marshals, having Arleen in my wave, completing the course when I really was ready to just quit 

Things I'd like to forget: The tiredness that persisted all weekend following the run, the weight of my backpack, the backpain during the run