Newport Marathon

So I ran my first official marathon in Newport and it was amazing! I had an aim of under 4 hours and scraped through with 11 seconds to spare!

It really was an amazing experience. It started at 9am but arrived at around 8.15 to prepare. It was cold and wet and the one thing I was worried about was my feet getting cold. I have Raynards Syndrome and when my feet get cold they literally go numb and I can’t feel them. It doesn’t even need to be cold. Unfortunately it happened on the day and my feet were numb for the first two miles before they warmed back up.

I headed off and my pace was really consistent for the first 21 miles and that’s when it started to slow a little. We were against the wind and having trained up to 20 miles before it was new territory for my body. From about 22 miles it was really tough. I kept looking at my watch and was still on target for under 4 hours.

Then the last 2 miles I really had to dig deep. My legs were screaming, but I knew I had to keep going and that I would make it.

In the last mile the 4 hour pacer overtook me.. Nooooo!!!!!! And then I had to run harder than I ever had before! And I made it. It was raining quite hard by the end and it was all a bit of a blur.. a medal, a T-shirt, water and food all given to me.. my priority was getting dry because I knew I would cook down quickly. I found my friend who had my change of clothes, I went into the sheltered car park where everyone was changing and stripped off (I really didn’t care)! warm clothes on and then I was ready to take in what had happened.

I did it. I put my mind to it and I made it. I am so proud of what I have done and has made all the training worth it.

It really was the most wonderful day and I’m already looking forward to the next one xx