Well, that's it folks. We have completed our challenge, the Adidas Silverstone Half Marathon. What an amazing, challenging time it has been from when we first started talking about doing this last July to now. Various ailments have been overcome. Personal difficulties have surfaced and been dealt with in one way or another. Relationships have been strengthened and weight has been lost!
I'll attempt to go through the day without being too boring. To start with, I slept pretty well for me. I think the antibiotics for my ear helped. I had no ear pain overnight and I woke feeling refreshed and ready for what the day would bring. Jack did not sleep so well. Maybe even he gets nervous!
After a bit of brekky, we climbed into the car after checking that we had all of the essentials...race number, shoe chip, painkillers, jelly babies....that kind of thing! We left home just after 8 am and Russ drove us there. Jack and I fell asleep for most of the journey..something that I never do normally but I was on the back seat so I was able to lay down so maybe that's why.
We made good time getting there and so had quite a bit of time to kill before we made our way to the start line. I meet Charlotte at the toilet block (as you do) and planned to meet up a little later but we both had itchy feet and needed to get moving so I got my boys out of the car and we walked to what I think is known as The Paddock at Silverstone. I may be wrong with this info because I am not an F1 fan like lots of others in my family! The said area was heaving with people, runners, spectators, volunteers, race organisers. There were queues for the loos, queues for coffee, queues for people dropping their bags off but, overall, the event was really well organised.
Jack and I met up with Charlotte at the start line. We were all feeling the same - nervous, excited and desperate for the race to start which it did promptly at noon. Jack was soon on his way and I lost sight of him pretty quickly. Charlotte and I trotted along at a steady pace for as long as we could before we settled into a walk/run style. I normally prefer doing this kind of thing on my own but with Charlotte beside me we really spurred each other on and we kept up a really good pace.
The circuit is open and mainly flat and it was a very windy day. The head wind on some parts of course was fierce and we suffered because it was blowing into us. However, when the wind was behind us it was lovely.
At various points of the course we could see the elite runners and the wheelchair athletes. the chap who won the race was so far ahead of his nearest rival that I think he finished a good 5 minutes ahead of everyone else. I caught sight of David Weir and several of the other wheelchair guys. They are amazingly strong and so inspirational.
There was also a group of runners who were running with a man who was completing the race in his
power chair. He was using oxygen I think and had had a tracheotomy. I believe his team were running to raise money for his cause as he had obviously had a very serious accident that had left him seriously disabled. The team had a medical support group cycling with them so that shows how poorly the guy was. They finished the race just ahead of us and they got fantastic support and cheering at the finish line. It was brilliant to see.
Charlotte and I saw her parents just as we had completed half of the race. It was perfect timing because that was the only time that we saw them until the end and they had just arrived. I was delighted that they were there to support us and even happier to see them. We gave them a quick hug and carried on our way.
The rest of the race was pretty good. It suddenly dawned on us both that we might actually finish in a time of under 3 hours. That had always been my goal but I thought it unlikely that we would achieve it.
At the 11 mile marker I had had enough. My legs were weak, I couldn't get my breath properly and I was generally knackered. For a couple of minutes I began to think that I wasn't going to make it but then I remembered the jelly babies that were lurking in my bag so I popped two in my mouth and that seemed to do the trick. 12 miles in and we could start to believe that our aching limbs and freezing cold hands, not to mention our very red faces, were going to get us to the finish. Very soon we could
see the finish line. We gathered ourselves for the final flourish and ran across the line in a wonderful time of 2 hrs 52 minutes. Goal achieved!
We had various photos taken by the official photographers and had our timing chips removed from our shoes before picking up our goody bag which contained the official t shirt, various food and drink and, most importantly, the medal.
The worst part of the day was trying to get out of the car park at the end. It was pretty predictable that it was going to be a problem as is often the case with many such events. I was just glad that I wasn't driving.
We didn't get home until after 6pm so it's been a long old day but my sense of achievement and pride in what we have achieved is immeasurable.
So, that's the end of this challenge and I really, truly am so very grateful to so many people. Thank you to the wonderful people that have sponsored any of us and helped us raise a whole heap of money. I don't have the final figure yet but I think we will raise over £1500 which is 3 times what our target was. Thank you to my family for putting up with my latest 'bright idea' and tolerating my moaning and groaning about umpteen things. Thank you to Charlotte, Charles and Jack for being part of this wonderful team. Thank you to everyone who has read any part of this blog. I don't know whether it's been worth doing or if anyone reads it but I have absolutely loved writing it.
For me personally this challenge has been about doing something in Jonathan's memory and I feel that, today, his memory has been honoured.
Thank you all so very much.
Love and hugs all round,
A xxxxxxxxx
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