Actually, A is for Agony

I feel amazing!  I made it.  OK, so there's a bit of pain now - I sure as hell won't be doing cartwheels for a few days, but every step was worth it - and most steps were enjoyable! 

And the icing on the cake (mmm cake) was that I beat my previous time at Brighton by 9 minutes.  OK, so at my next event I won't be giving Nell McAndrew a head start, but I'm pretty pleased with my official time of 4:55.39.   The best achievement for me was not doing my usual trick and passing out at the finish. 

The race was really well organised, with runners kept occupied with music points, water stations and  the local sights.  The start was a bit tricky, with the slower runners being released from their pens before all of the faster runners had passed; not an issue for slower runners like me, but those pushing for a particularly speedy time might have been affected.   Spectators were able to move around the course fairly well to cheer on their loved ones at various points (I think Superfan managed to see me 5 times during the race itself - with gels, biofreeze and additional water available - you gotta love the Superfan!).   Distance was well marked in km and there were readers at every 5km so splits were readily available for eager analysis at the end of the race.  

I ran near enough on pace for the first 10 miles, then goodness knows what happened!  I spent most of mile 11-20 giving myself a stern talking to (and my sister phoned me to see how I was getting on), but refocused from mile 20 onwards and my tired legs gave it all they could.  At this point I realised the benefit of the dreaded tempo run.  I may never enjoy this part of the training plan, but at least now I recognise how vital tempo runs are to training.  I do feel that I could have driven it harder in the middle section of the race, but - hey!  There's always the next one!  And I'd definitely run this race again. 

Amsterdam was fantastic!  The city is beautiful, and the people are incredibly friendly.  We were lucky enough to be upgraded at our hotel, the NH Grand, and were given a goody bag containing a tin of stroopwafels, a bicycle bell, some delicious chocs and the offer of a free drink at the bar for being their 'Guests of the Day'.  (Naturally this was post race, and I will admit, that G&T tasted wonderful and went straight to my head.  Numbed the muscle pain a bit, though I did look a sight attempting to get off a bar stool with malfunctioning legs whilst trying to look a tad glam in the victory LBD! )

The weekend resulted in smiles all round, as both Sam and Emma both all managed significant PBs.  Sam by 12 mins (I think that's right?), and Emma by a massive 30 mins.  Ladies, you are amazing! 

So now I'm resting, well my body is.... my mind is working on new ideas for the Alphabet Challenge!  Training for B is for Brighton starts in a few weeks time, but I'm hoping I may be able to squeeze another letter in before then!