Rugby Half Marathon (story + videos + stats)

Here are the results from my recent half marathon for those who were interested.

And here's a video of me mid way through and then crossing the finish line: https://youtu.be/dimv-bl_LRU

To sum it up in one sentence, it was the most pain I've ever been in a race.
I'd been a bit under the weather coming into this one but I'd overcome the worst of the cold and was confident that with the help of my new Hoka Rocket shoes I could add to the surprisingly quick 5K (19:00) and Hilly 10K (41:45) times that I'd achieved recently, and beat my PB of 1:32:52 from back in 2016. 

Feeling good on the starting line I set off, more than happy to stay with the 1:30:00 pacer for the first 2 miles or so. But that's when I realised that I was a bit fucked.

The rest of the race was a mental battle I'd never experienced the likes of. It was quite a hilly, two lap course and by the time we came back into Rugby at the end of the first lap I was seriously struggling. The problem was I knew that my PB was still possible, so I battled on. Recently I missed my Park Run PB by 2 seconds and I was determined not to let anything like that happen again.

Needless to say the second lap was absolutely horrible and not helped by a complete inability to breathe through my nose which made drinking water extremely difficult. All I could think about was the final 3 miles which were on a flat ex-railway path. Here I could summon some late adrenaline, get into a rhythm and make up for lost time. I was wrong though. It turned out to be the hardest 3 miles I've ever ran. Every fibre of my body wanted to slow down but I couldn't because my questionable ongoing calculations were telling me that I could actually still beat my PB. If I didn't give it my absolute all and I missed it by a second again, I'd be fuming with myself.

I should say that it probably wasn't healthy what I was doing to my poor ticker. I don't know if a 174bpm average heart rate is healthy, I suppose I'd need to know my max heart rate for a scientific analysis, but I did go quite dizzy at one point.

I realised with half a mile to go that the PB wasn't gettable which was relieving in a way because I could concentrate fully on looking forward to it being over. Absolutely powerless to stop a man who I'd been battling with passing me yards before the line, I finished at a respectable 1:33:37 and collapsed into a semi-delirious heap on the grass.

It's hard to come up with a closing message for this one. I'm proud of myself for battling on and going as hard as I could in the face of some strong demons, and that will no doubt help me loads in future races, but I actually think I may have overdone it this time.
What do you reckon? Have you had a similar experience? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers for reading everyone and remember, never give up!