Amongst the hustle and bustle of culture, boutique shops, and kamikaze cyclists is the picture-esq city of Cambridge. It was also going to be the destination of a rare weekend away for my boyfriend & I.
Unfortunately I wasn't just visiting for leisure... we were heading there to tackle the Cambridge half marathon! I'd love to say I'd been training for months and months but I hadn't. I'll be first to admit I had tried in peaks and troughs but over the last few weeks I'd mainly been sitting in front of Gossip Girl! I knew it was going to be a challenge.
On the Saturday morning I got up and casually had breakfast before my boyfriend and I caught the train to Cambridge. I was quite excited as I'd never been before, so not only would I be going for a particular event, I would also see a lot of the city center too.
Once checked into our hotel we became like every other tourist and took to seeing the sights, I was being quite careful as I didn't want to walk too far incase I decided to run the next day. Sorry, I should of mentioned that I wasn't even sure if I was going to run because of the lack of training!
So of course we checked out the local sites and did a spot of shopping. It would've been rude not to!
Sunday morning, up at 6.30am to dive in the shower, wash and wake up. I was going to run. I'd made my decision after a prep talk from my Mum. She chose to remind me of my triumph in 2010 at the Breast Cancer Moonwalk that we did, shortly after my 1st knee operation. I'd been suffering with pains in my knee from mile 5 and honestly started to think I was never going to make it, I'd told my Mum and sister to carry on without me as I may leave at half marathon instead of doing the full. As I approached the half marathon turn off I said to myself I could do it. I carried on. Somehow caught my Mum and sister up and we walked the entire marathon together. She was extremely right... as Mummy's always are...
'When
you set your mind to something, you can do anything'
With this in mind, I manned up and decided to run. With my gorgeous boyfriend next to me I knew I'd be fine. We chatted most of the way and I felt quite relaxed despite forgetting my knee support (oops). I struggled towards the end as there was a long straight finish, I tend to find when there are turns and interesting things to look at I can cope, when it's a long straight road it all dawns on me what I'm actually doing - and then I start to hurt! None the less I've lived to tell the tale. I managed the run in just over 2 hours, and it was 16 mins quicker than the Run to the beat I did in September. I wish I'd of hit less than 2 hours but I didn't - I've got my challenge set for next time!
Today I'm aching! Roll on my hot bath and good soak tonight!
xoxo