Royal Parks Half Marathon

Last Sunday I woke up at 6:45 and went on to run the Royal Parks Half Marathon. Yay! I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of running and training for a half marathon. The runs were just long enough to be challenging and make you feel like you have accomplished something but not so long that you didn’t want to do it. I lost a little bit of extra weight I was carrying around but got to increase my food intake at the same time. I got to run through the summer months which is a always a joy and I didn’t have to sacrifice a whole Sunday preparing for a long run, doing a long run and recovering from a long run like I did when training for the full marathon. I liked the training so much I have signed up for another half in February!

The event itself was a lot of fun. Basically 13 miles around the sites of London, with the last half looped around Hyde Park. There were 12000 runners which was both a good and bad thing. Good in the sense that you got carried away with the spirit and speed of the people around you and didn’t feel like you could stop, even if you wanted to. Bad in that it was hard to go your own pace and when you felt a surge of energy and wanted to speed up you often had to do so by dodging the people around you. This was especially annoying at the end when you didn’t want to waste any energy by trying to avoid people. But, I would highly highly highly recommend this run and think my sisters should come and join me next year. A whole year to train! Think about it. The weather was pretty ideal for running. It did rain a little bit on the way there but stopped for the most part and it was just cold enough to keep you the perfect temperature while you were running without a jacket. Martin came along with me and it was great as I got to see him three times along the way. A nice thing to look forward to! I can honestly say I gave this run everything I had and when I crossed the finish line I was exhausted. I ran as hard as I could and went as fast as my little legs would let me. And I crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 4 minutes and 18 seconds. I am very proud!

In other very exciting news Martin’s sister had a baby today! A little girl. They plan to call her Milly. I can’t wait to see her! 8lbs, 8oz. I love it when babies are born. A whole new person to love-how exciting! Congrats!