I ran the Taunton Half Marathon yesterday. I was a bit nervous beforehand - it's the first time I've run any distance since I hurt my ankle almost 9 days ago. Since then I've rested it, before testing the waters with a personal training session after a week and a quick 3.5 mile jog the next day. Happily, my ankle seemed to play ball, so it was full steam ahead (ish) on Sunday morning.
My previous half marathon time has hovered around the 2:18 mark - I am a slow runner! That was October (and the October before that), but after 12 weeks of marathon training I've got my half marathon time down to 02:02:05, quite an improvement if I do say so myself, even if now it's screaming at me that my next goal is clearly a sub 2 hour half marathon. My mile average was 09:20, also an improvement on my 10:00 / 10:30 miles that were the norm just 8 weeks ago.
The marathon course was one I hadn't run before (well, I knew parts of it), but the hill that took up most of mile 10 to 11 was the hardest part and resulted in my slowest mile. At least after that it was pretty much down hill to the finish line. Water was well placed along the route and the sponge stalls were great, especially as it was starting to get quite hot by midday with the sun shining through.
After the race I went home and iced my ankle for half an hour to minimise any chance of my injury returning and then, of course, my Mum put the ice back in her freezer. Classy.
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