Crossing the line we completed the half marathon and below is a photo of sheer joy, or relief as young Adam crosses the line, ably assisted by Sara, Tom and yours truly.
It was a great atmosphere, the weather was fantastic, I could top up my tan, there was the buzz of competition and the Royal Parks looked incredible.
Adam has been pretty ill, and it has taken time for him to recover. OK, perhaps his sense of humour returned slightly quicker, like the day of the op, do you not think that maybe that was the anaesthetic! However there was a distinct lack of humour over the last few miles on Sunday. He’d never run that far before. We did our best to keep his spirits up and his mind off the distance by telling jokes, singing songs and telling he was either slacking or not sweating enough.
Obviously he didn’t run in the mask, we have hidden his identity, mainly because I wanted to use a picture of us finishing, but his face was so contorted with pain, and joy, and confusion, I only thought it fair. Well actually he said I couldn’t. Not that is how he put it. He did however agree that I could use this version. I’m not sure this really looks any better!
No Pain No Gain
Adam’s target was to run it in under 2 and a half hours, we just about did it. I know he’ll have had a sneaky bet with someone that he would do it, I wonder what the wager was?
Luckily I beat my target of 5 hours, but only because I slipped out of my wetsuit. Well I tripped over my flippers 5 times walking backwards up to the start line, my mask fogged over, and some wag kept putting his hand over the tube to my snorkel. Ta, Adam. In a fit of rage I ripped it all off, and well wouldn’t you know it I was wearing my running gear underneath!
Eventually we crossed the start line, and the rest is history. I would like to add my congratulations to Suhul’s Sarah, well under 2 hours and to Peter an amazing 1hour 25 minutes. Peter are you sure you didn’t sneak between the barriers at some point?
Those of you who did this for charity, I salute you, those of you who got round, what a fantastic achievement. However there were some casualties, nearly to a man, men! I think they get put off running a full marathon on no training, but there is a macho element who thinks, OK, it’s only half a marathon, I’ll run it as far as I can and walk the rest. Can’t be that difficult, I used to be pretty fit, it’s a walk in the park, no it’s not it’s a run in the park and 13.1 miles do some preparation.
Very well, that’s that off my chest.
Better get back to doing some real work.
Just a walk in the Parks
Copyright © 2013 Adrian Holdsworth. All Rights Reserved.