day of reckoning

I would love to say that today was the culmination of months of careful preparation. In reality I just about managed to squeeze in enough training to know that I would be able to complete the half marathon somehow.

I went down to Falkirk to meet up with Ross (singer in our band; all round nice chap) and then we headed into Glasgow. Packed doesn't do it justice: I heard some chat about the total numbers for the 10km and half marathon being around 30,000. I was surprisingly nervous about it as I don't consider myself good (or even capable) at running and this would be the first time I'd attempted more than 12km. However, I'd packed the energy gels, had water, took some energy bars and from cycling experience know (for me anyway) the importance of watching the clock and taking fuel and water regularly, without fail.

Good start, slightly slower than I normally run so the first 5km were fine. Second 5km were also okay but I could feel my legs starting to complain about 10km. the next 5km were tough and by the time I got to the 11 mile mark (about 17.5km) my legs felt decidedly odd.

It was almost at exactly this point that I passed a young man receiving CPR on the road and he looked in a very bad way. It turned out to be this man. Tragic.

I made it to the finish and found Ross (2:08 for me, 1:49 for Ross) and headed back home. I was lucky.