Run > Race

My best ever running day. Can't see me ever beating this.

Standing on the start line I had a drastic change of plan. There were so many people talking about what pace they were going to run at that I decided to let my legs decide rather than my garmin. Bang! - off we go. Immediately found myself running next to Helen Berry from Holmfirth who was checking her Garmin every 15 seconds or so. Mine beeped on the mile and it said 6.40 and I thought "there you go Stead, no where to hide now, you've got to keep going". After 2.5 miles I scrapped another of my pre race plans which was to not overtake the 3 hour pacer. I found myself in the crowd just behind him and I was starting to feel suffocated by the lack of space so I jumped on the pavement and went round and immediately felt glad I had, as I had some open road to run into but knew from now on that if I saw the pacer again it would be race over. The miles from there to around 22 were all pretty uneventful but at 23 miles I did the first mile slower than target race pace but knew I had so much time in the bank it would take hospitalisation to stop me getting the sub 3. With around 1.5 miles to go I could see old trafford and knew the finish was next to it and I started to struggle. I felt sick and for the first time in the race people were overtaking me, it felt like everyone was gearing up for the finish but I'd already ran my race and was clinging on. Once I got within 300 metres I let my mind lose the battle with my body and started gagging and threw up about 3 times. Not much in volume but enough to make the finishing pictures look dreadful! but I didn't stop running!! I was fighting back tears as I crossed the line. Not tears of joy or anything naff, not even relief really - just exhaustion, I've always said if you don't puke or shit yourself at the finish then you've not tried hard enough. I think today I tried just that little bit too hard and was prepared to put myself through the pain barrier into a place I won't normally go, but I'm glad I did, I'm not sure if I could do it again though! Thankfully I don't need to. Just so chuffed, I never thought I'd be able to put in times like this.

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1) 1m - 6:41(6:41/m) 119cal
2) 1m - 6:39(6:39/m) 122cal
3) 1m - 6:39(6:39/m) 121cal
4) 1m - 6:33(6:33/m) 121cal
5) 1m - 6:30(6:30/m) 121cal
6) 1m - 6:38(6:38/m) 122cal
7) 1m - 6:33(6:33/m) 121cal
8) 1m - 6:36(6:36/m) 122cal
9) 1m - 6:31(6:31/m) 121cal
10) 1m - 6:36(6:36/m) 121cal
11) 1m - 6:32(6:32/m) 121cal
12) 1m - 6:35(6:35/m) 122cal
13) 1m - 6:34(6:34/m) 121cal
14) 1m - 6:26(6:26/m) 120cal
15) 1m - 6:39(6:39/m) 123cal
16) 1m - 6:37(6:37/m) 121cal
17) 1m - 6:32(6:32/m) 121cal
18) 1m - 6:30(6:30/m) 121cal
19) 1m - 6:39(6:39/m) 122cal
20) 1m - 6:34(6:34/m) 121cal
21) 1m - 6:33(6:33/m) 121cal
22) 1m - 6:46(6:46/m) 122cal
23) 1m - 6:58(6:58/m) 121cal
24) 1m - 7:01(7:01/m) 122cal
25) 1m - 7:01(7:01/m) 121cal
26) 1m - 7:29(7:29/m) 123cal
27) 0.07m - 31(7:11/m) 9cal