Royal Parks Half Marathon 2010

My 2nd Royal Parks Half Marathon can be summed up in a few words - fighting for lost time!

Knowing the drill, we signed up early on the day...and when it came I had my big bag ready for all the freebies from the sponsors, to load up my potentially year's supply of sports drinks and health bars etc :)

Good breakfast of my normal smoothie mixed with coffee, at the crack of dawn, I took the first train out to London. Difference this year is I'm going on my own and the District line was down , which means I had to go into Zone 1 for my Tube connection.

'Yes, you can take 3 each!' and knowing the geography of the Lucozade tent, I made a beeline for the drinks, and timing tapes...and ambitious me picked a 1:55 (despite never having seen this)...and then joined the queues for:

1. the baggage drop
2. the toilets (unfortunately you cant really au-naturel in Hyde Park!)

with the gun fired, and loudspeakers going ' the race has started'..what do i do? I remembered Prague and didnt want to lose time at mile 1 searching for facilities...so had to get it out somehow. I tried the other side of the toilet blocks closer to the blue start, queues were shorter, and there was a queue to get into the blue start too!

so with a lil bit of luck, I started my race with line of sight of 2:00 pacers, and approximately 10 mins into the gun going off.


it is a run that is all too familiar with me, parts of which I actually do on my training during lunch and after work..the difference, of course, is no traffic, but heaps of people (and smokin supporters!) i told myself to start slow...to avoid any blistering effects..


at 10am on 10.10.10 I heard the all familiar chime, yes, I was next to the Big Ben! However, my watch and yellow pace tape says I am behind schedule at Mile 1, so I had to pick up speed....westminster bridge, victoria embankment...I'd seen it heaps of times before! speed speed speed...but too many people to dodge!
casulties near the drinks station...stitches....go go go....oh...

before I turned back into admiralty arch, I knew it was gone. few minutes off the yellow tape goal. I redirected my efforts on enjoying the Mall, and thinking about VLM 2011, cos in April, that will be the finishing line!

on entering hyde park (again, another familiar sight), I can almost replay RPFHM 2009 in my head, or rather the BHF 10k...except with the cheering crowds with no familiar faces in sight!I'd 'revised' the route this time so was less disoriented, stuck to my nutrition strategy, and threw water onto my head.

Again I had wished I had got the opportunity to know Hyde Park better before this race...but too late now. I focused on the mile markers, the drone of the cheering crowds, and when there are less people around, the falling leaves, the lovely trees, buildings...and the beats of the BPM mix (Kelly Chen) that I had thrown in as a bit of experiment in the last week of 'training'...it worked! However I had my potential risks to take care of. I spotted one in a st john's uniform and did a 'high five' to get a smear of vaseline for my right arch...and avoided the Percy Pigs and Gummi coca cola bottles 'nutrition station'....the spare ones stuck to the ground, what a hazard!

counting down...10-11-12 mile markers went past...the tip of the Albert memorial almost in sight, I knew that wasnt it yet...and then my motivational tune came on:

'hold on...there will be tomorrow, in time, you'll find the way...'

I threw away my lucozade body fuel, narrowly missing a fellow runner's head (oops), and did all i can to go uphill .....i saw british military fitness 2:10 pacer going past me...and thought, that's it. In a 'strange' turn of events, he stopped 1/2 mile before the finish and started walking...the curious me was going to enquire, but I thought....nope...and made it across at 2:09:31

Not my best performance this year I know. and I hadnt pushed for it. However, it was better than last year, on the same course. Some consolation there!

I finished my banana at record time, got together with my friends doing the run, for a rewarding dim sum lunch in Chinatown.

Many things are going through my head, as I am sitting on my bed, recovering (still, more than a day after the race!) why is the return to a autumn half after a spring marathon always so hard!  and how will I need to train for VLM 2011 which has as many crowds as this...and twice the distance..

The thought of this calls for an escape...to another country, where another race awaits ;) Will i get a holiday before I 'start' training for VLM 2011?