A half of Alloa

Good weekend all round. On the Saturday we walked as a family from the Turret Dam across the hill to Braefordie and from there down to Lawers. What a cracking walk. Jo loved it Storm ran most of it, the dogs loved and Gregor - well secretly he loved it too! Poor lad. It is a long walk for him and although he wanted carried from almost the word go he managed until well into the descent to Lawers where I carried him on my shoulders for a bit. That was a bad mistake for me but he was glad of it. All in all a superb day out, with bright warm sun, good fun and tired kids and dogs in the evening.

On the Sunday it was the Alloa half marathon at the weekend I had only entered the week before and was only down for the run so to speak. What I hadn't expected was how stiff and sore my calves would be after carrying Gregor on my shoulders down the hill on walk the day before. They were really really tight and sore, but I assumed [hoped] that they might free up after a few miles [they did]. Eight other Harriers were there running with one or two others in support and although I'm not a regular club runner, as I'm never around when the runs are on there is something really special about being part of the Harriers at an event. So I lined up in the middle of the biggest event I had ever been in chatting away with Liz Tipping as the hoard moved forward towards a big sign that said FINISH. Not sure why for such a well organised event they had the sign back to front, but it was Alloa after all! The first few miles were the usual slow plod and doubts about whether I could do this, but of course 20-30 minutes into it things improved, I found my groove and started to pull the pace back up. It might not have looked like it but spent a most enjoyable 5 or so minutes running beside Colin and Fiona who seemed to be constantly chatting, joking, running ahead for photos or berating the locals for not waving back. I might have had my 'this is painfull' face on - but I did enjoy their company. Colin's report is hilarious as usual and is well well worth a read - here [and the photo below is from there too BTW].

I had had quiet hopes before the start that I might break the 2hr barrier [despite my pleadings of no such interest to Phil T before the start] and as I pulled the pace up my watch was telling me this might be on. To be honest I LOVED the race from that point. I've never had the pleasure of overtaking people before, and for the next 8miles or so that's what I did - and it felt great. Even right at the end I was running strong and finished in 1:57:01, nearly 19minutes faster than the dreaded Glen Clova of last year. Not only was the result good but I finished with a huge smile on my face - a prerequisite in my book for any run, but I'm absolutely stoked with the result. Beginning to realise that the half is a good distance for me. Long enough for me to get up to speed and then work away at it, without being overly long. Would really like to get under 1:50 before the season end and might do the Loch Leven half in may if time allows.

The other news is that I've now decided to stop keeping quiet about what all this training has been for as I've got to the point where [as I said before] I'm 75% sure I'll complete what I've entered and even if I don't I'll be cool with that outcome as well. So as I was speaking to Ian Beattie and Phil T I let them know that I've entered the Deeside 33 in two weeks time. Ian is running it [he did 38 miles on the Saturday and then the half marathon on the Sunday!!!] and had seen my entry online. I reckon he'll be home with his feet up before I finish the run itself. Anyway Ian and Phil both reckoned that if i can do 23 regularly I can do 33. - Hope so.

One other milestone is that I have now ran more miles in the first 2-1/2 months of 2010 than I did in the whole of 2009. Now that is an achievement.