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On Sunday 13th June, I took part in the St Albans Half Marathon. It was indeed a very COVID-19 compliant event. Since the Verulamium Park is so big, it was not too challenging for the organisers to comply to all these restrictions and rules. From the look of the park, it still hadn’t returned to the pre-COVID scene. I think it was about half or slightly more than half number of participants compared to the last one in 2019. There were so many barriers everywhere with one way system to ensure participants were keeping social distancing. Unfortunately, the pre-race aerobic dance warm up had been cancelled. The organiser announced through the PA system they hoped to bring it back next year.
It was a very warm day already on the high 20’s°C early in the morning. The humidity was high too. In view of the scorching weather, the organiser advised us to bring water with us to start with as the first water station was at mile 3 followed by 3 more water stations at mile 6, 9 and 12.
This event also offered to walkers. John and my sister Fidelia opted to take part in the walking event. They set off at 8:30. There were not many walkers and they were all allowed to start at the same time. I opted to run so had to wait until 10:00. I went back to my car and sat there. I went back to the park about 45 minutes later.
Due to the staggered start system, I didn’t start until a quarter past 10. In 2 weeks, I’ll be doing the Milton Keynes Marathon and I didn’t want any injury, I just took it easy. My pace stayed 11+ minute a mile for most of the time. I bumped into my DoI ex-colleague Luisa Brana. She was still wearing the MPAA running vest. She left the Met probably 10 years ago and she is now Assistant Director at Deloitte but she still represents MPAA to take part in running races. After saying hello, she pulled away from me in no time. Not surprising as she always gets her London Marathon guaranteed places under the fast good for age category.
It got hotter and hotter. I took a litre bottle of water with me to start with. I grabbed the bottle water from the 1st station, drank some and kept the rest until I reached the next water station. Then I finished the bottle in my hand and grabbed another bottle. I think I had consumed over 2 litres of water during the entire half marathon distance and I still felt thirsty.
There was no shade along the very long stretch of country lane and to make a double whammy, it was uphill too. Some runners turned to a walking mode. As for me, I had no idea whether I was running or walking. I basically went into a survival mode. I just wanted to finish. There came the mile mark. It was mile 9. My question was: “Will my survival mode last till 13.1 miles?”. Oh well, I did the best I could, swallowed my pride and just kept pushing one leg in front of the other.
Mile 12 is always a morale destroyer as we had to run to the end of the street and turn back in order to make up the mileage. When I entered the street, runners who had done that loop were entering to the park heading to the finish line. It was so tempted to ignore that loop and just to enter the park but it would be cheating. I finally finished that nasty loop and entered the park towards the finish line. I finished in a slow time just under 2 and half hours.
Here is the YouTube clip taken by John showing how knackered and hot I was after crossing the finish line:
John and Fidelia arrived at the finish half an hour before me so they looked very chilled. This race is also called Ice Lolly Half Marathon so I received an ice lolly after getting my finisher’s medal.
I am running the Milton Keynes full marathon next Sunday. I hope the weather won’t be that crazily hot!