Half Marathon Re-cap!

Happy Sunday!

How is everyone? And all you guys who had your own runs on – how did they go!?

Now for my own half mary re-cap

I started the day as I usuall do (except it was about an hour earlier than normal, bah) – an apple, a sq of chocolate and a tbsp of wheatgerm. That was to just tide me over til I wanted to have breakfast (at 8.30, which I worked out would be the perfect time before my run ) – breakfast was fabulous:

A cinnamon and raisin bagel, with chocolate chip PB and a tiny bit of homemade damson jam:

Oh so yummy

About half an hour before the run, I had a banana:

Then my mum and I went down to the start, where she snapped this pic of me (excuse the fushy face-  the sun was in my eyes!):

Then we were off ….

Goodness, it was the hardest run I’ve EVER done!! The weather was amazing – sunny, with a cool breeeze – but I was NOT expecting the amount of hills….ohmygoodness. They just kept on coming, and some were so steep! Hills probably aren’t a big deal to most people, but for someone who is surrounded by miles miles of FLAT, it was ruddy hard work!

My breathing was fine for about the first 6miles, but then I was getting so so hot, my head was pounding. I definetly didn’t drink enough! I’ve never run long distance when it’s warm (I didn’t start proper running til autumn last year) so I had no idea how much to take. So yeah, for the last 6miles my breathing was horrible, which was probably related to dehydration. For about 200m each mile, normally after a hill,  my chest was getting really tight and it felt kinda like asthma…I was just struggling to breath! Then it would go again and I’d feel fine. Very strange!!

I kept on chugging the water though, and I stole a bottle from my mum when she met me about mile 8, which was a life saver!!

But during the last mile or so…gah, it was so difficult. My lungs/chest hurt, and I felt like I wanted to be sick – but weirdly my legs felt FANTASTIC! Fit and strong and full of beans. It was literally just my lungs! So yeah, the last miles – it took so much mental strength to not walk, but I kept repeating the old ‘Pain is temporary, quitting is forever’ – and it worked

I completed in 1hour50, which I think is about an 8.20 pace I was really pleased with that – I’d said to my mum before I started, I wanted to aim for 1hour50 so spot on! But boy was I relieved to finish – I was SO HOT!

Immediately post race, I just went for a nice walk with my mum round a playing field and drank about 1/2 litre water!

Then I posed for a pic with my spanking new medal

Phew!! After about 1/2 hour, I drank what I’ve been craving all week…..

A Green Monster with loaaads of spinach, 1 cup milk, nutmeg and a banana:

Perfect post-run fuel

Then we started the long drive home…made longer by waiting in a traffic jam for about 4miles On my way, I had THE most FABULOUS sandwich!!

Something I’ve seen floating about round the blog world, but which I never discovered until the other day -

Tempeh!

Have you ever tried it?

I read online that’s it’s pretty bland sometimes without seasoning, so I made it into quite the jazzy sandwich:

2 pieces of seeded bread, spread with olive oil spread, topped with some halloumi cheese, and half orange/onion chutney (as featured yesterday) and half with homemade damson jam.

Next layer was the tempeh, with some spinach (bring on the iron :p) and cinnamon:

That was one big beautiful sandwich!!

It was SO SO SO good! I’m officially in love with tempeh – it’s almost kinda nutty!? Amaze.

When I got home, I iced my foot immediately – it’s not injured, but my right one (the one that got injured last year) didn’t feel QUITE right. Not painful, but instinct said I should do something – so I did the old RICE thing – rest, ice, c….I’ve forgotten c….and elevate! (Oh, compression right? I don’t think I did that…). So my foot had a 25minute date with some frozen beans

I also had a little taster sample of some cake slices we bought at the venue (races seem to stock so much homemade cake!):

Chocolate above, and coffee and walnut, and another chocolate below:

My plate:

The coffee and walnut was the best by far – very strong!

I’m now just finishing up a hot chocolate before I go and bake some cornbread

I hope you’re all  having lovely sunny days!! The weather here is so gorgeous…folks, I think spring might have finally arrived!

Enjoy the day

EDIT:

It didn’t seem quite worth doing a whole new post just for the bits of food I had for snack and dinner, so I’ll just whiz through them here

Afternoon snack – a hot chocolate and some Bear Granola Nibbles:

Which I mixed with some Quinoa O’s, extra cacao nibs and Nature’s Path Cinnamon/Blueberry:

That makes one fabulous bowl

For dinner, I was boring but I felt like spoiling myself Sundried tomato/basil stuffed pasta, with christmas turkey, and leek, kabocha and parsnip roasted with garlic, thyme, agave and cinnamon – tis my ULTIMATE meal!!

GAWSH did that hit the spot!! In about an hour, I’m going to have my usual dessert, and it’ll officially be the perfect end to the perfect day