I did it - woo hoo! 1 hr 59 mins and 02 secs - much better than I'd hoped. I have to admit that I actually loved it and felt good throughout - very suprised by that! I was so nervous and worried about the race, contradicting myself every day for weeks whether to do it or not but I am so pleased I did it. This is my kind of race report of the day!
I thoroughly enjoyed the route, starting at a very crowded George's Square and was pleasantly suprised that the start differed from last year and you didn't have to run all the way up St Vincent Street's incline
We turned left, ran up Bothwell Street and ran up on to the Kingston Bridge - fantastic! By then it was teaming with rain but it didn't bother me at all and kept me cool.
I managed to borrow a garmin and tried not to look at it too much but I couldn't help it as I was feeling strong and found it interesting (and a bit of a novelty) to know my 'pace'. The first few miles I did under 9min miles and since it was my first half I started to panic that I would burn out so I slowed back a bit as we went into the Southside and ran round Bellahouston Park followed by Pollok Country Park. I'm not sure whether the course had slightly changed from before as I knew that in the 10k route it had a big hill in Pollok Park and a few others had told me there was big one in the half so I was bracing myself for it but it never came - hurrah!
The banter and atmosphere was great throughout the race with plenty of entertainment to keep you motivated although I don't think they had a 10 mile marker which threw me off a bit but when we got closer to the Clyde I knew it was the home straight so kept pushing on. Those last 2 miles were the hardest but I still had a little energy in the tank to do a sprint finish and would've pushed it more if I knew exactly where the finish line was but it suddenly just appeared when I turned a corner and I was elated to cross that finish line!
I was so chuffed with my time and think I could've shaved a bit off if I'd pushed it a bit but really just glad to get round it in one piece! Goody bag was pretty good including banana, water, tunnocks, cereal, cereal bar etc etc Tshirt wasn't as good as mokrun though
Well done to everyone else who ran it or the 10k - Jen Martin did great with 1 hr 49 - fantastic stuff! Don't know many other times but quickly checked the 10k winner times to see if any of the mokrun winners were up there and seen Hendrie Barbour's name at position 25 - WOW! Amazing Hendrie well done!