Officially half way through the training programme now. And this week we ran the Sussex Beacon Brighton Half Marathon

I still can’t believe we actually did it.

It was a beautifully sunny day – not a cloud in the sky, quite cold but perfect conditions for a half marathon. We made sure we consumed a hearty breakfast of porridge before 7.30am and set off to the start line, a little bit nervous. We passed quite lot of professional looking runners on the way which added to our nerves but once we were underway it was fine. Took us 5 minutes to even get to the start line – imagine how long the marathon will take!! We completed it which was the main goal and managed an ok time of 2hrs 17mins too. There was a real mental challange at mile 10 when you are coming back on yourself down onto Madeira drive almost within touching distance of the finish and then you have to turn back and head towards the Marina – really tough mentally, especially as there are people passing you with about 300 metres to go! The race was really well organised and good fun.

Great experience for the marathon of how many gels we need to take and when. My mum and dad met us half way with a gel and then were there at the finish line to cheer us on those last few meters.

Zoe’s work colleague Dave (who as I rightly remember suggested once we did the half it’d be silly not to carry on and train for the marathon) won the race – with a personal best of 1hr 11 – well done Dave.

My legs are quite sore this week though I must say – walking down stairs is a challenge – Zoe seems ok which is a worry (note to self: must train harder!).

We also did another 7 mile run mid week and our usual 3 miles on the Tuesday so the miles are gradually ramping up.

Total miles this week: 23

Lessons learnt: In a race where there are lots of cameras – keep smiling! Oh, and consume more gels.

Here’s a picture of us with our medals at the finish.