“The miracle isn’t that you finished. The miracle is that you had the courage to start.” – adapted from John Bingham

I saw this quote today, hand printed on a sign, leaning up against an old chair, right at the top of a hill. The hardest hill of my half marathon trek today. Halfway up the hill, two ladies were dressed in crazy outfits, playing music and dancing away. They also had a sign, “It’s a hill. Get over it”

This was the hardest half marathon walk of the five I have done. I really, really (really) wanted to do a personal best and my first half pace put me right on track. And then, around kilometre 11, the wheels started to fall off the bus. I had pushed so hard in that first half, I believe, that I was not going to be able to keep it up. I did the first 10 km in 1 hour 24 minutes. That’s a pace of 8 minutes 24 seconds. To runners, that sounds easy breezy. And probably for many walkers.

My pace in the second half was 9 minutes 24 seconds. Oops. Was it the hills? The lack of enough food before I started? Who knows?

I do know this. I have never trained harder and felt better before a race. And when things were going good – and there were times in the second half when things were going good – I was very happy.

So, although like the flower below, I’m a bit worse for wear tonight, I’m a happy half marathoner!