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What am I doing? I’ve been in bed all week with a bad cold, I’ve managed one run since the Cardiff Half where I pulled my left calf, and now I’m stood out in the freezing driving rain about to run another one!!! Standing at the start line, soaked to the bones already, the hooter goes…. here we go again

As I said, I’d been in bed with a cold the previous week before the race, was hit and miss about whether I’d do the race but Friday morning I was feeling a bit better (besides the horrendus cough) so I thought why not. I knew I’d only be sitting around on Sunday morning wishing I’d done the race anyway.

Waking up Sunday morning I looked out of the window and oh bugger was it raining hard, the warm bed looked awfully inviting, but no I was going. Arriving at Cwmbran Stadium if anything the weather had got a little worse, but I climbed onto the coach for the trip up to Blaenavon for the start. Runners gathered in the rugby club before the race, and despite the conditions outside everyone was in high spirits and lots of laughs going around

I decided that I was going to try and cover the first part of the race as fast as I could, I knew without much training I wouldn’t really have the stamina to keep going for the entire race. So I belted it at the start planning on just surviving the last part of the course. I managed to cover the first 5km in just over 20 minutes (good news for the next 5km race!).

All the way around everyone out supporting (or just walking the dog), the PCSOs directing traffic, and all the other runners were very friendly and encouraging. That’s the main difference that struck me about this compared to the Cardiff Half.

As predicted after about 9 miles I could feel my legs getting heavy and my pace slowed right down. The wind had picked up again and at times was holding runners on the spot, not nice at this point in the race. By 11 miles my chest got tight and I had to stop a couple of times for some coughing fits Still arriving in the stadium for a lap and a half I managed to grab a little more energy from somewhere.

I eventually finished in 1:56:33, drenched, tired, aching, but with a big smile on my face! More like a time from a training run, but that’s fine given the circumstances. I’ll definately be back next year, hopefully I’ll be in much better physical state to run and the weather gods will be smiling on the event

All that said it was nice to get home to a hot bath and some cold beers