... until next year that is!
I'm a little disappointed with myself as I didn't manage to run all the way. But I completed the course in about 2 hours 25 minutes, better than I thought I'd manage when I originally took on the challenge but not as good as I hoped I might manage after all these weeks of training. It turns out that the hills were much worse than I thought they would be and I'm not nearly fit enough to tackle the full course in one go. Even with the four or five walks I took I still ended up well and truly shattered by the end of the course. Something everyone with me got to share in as my stomach decided to empty itself all over the floor. Yep something disagreed with me - it was either all the running or the lucozade sport or a combination of the two. Nevermind I felt much better after that and scoffed down an after run snack and we joined the queue of traffic to leave the finish line.
I will be spending more training time on hills in future and I will be trying to get my fitness levels up over the next year so that I can tackle the course again and not have to walk. Given my level of fitness 14 weeks ago I'm quite happy how much my fitness has improved and want to keep up the momentum now.
My three brothers also ran, David finished in around 2 hours 15 minutes, Richard about 1 hour 50 (and was soon getting the pints in afterwards) and Matthew around 2 hours 45 minutes. David's girlfriend Emily ran as well and stayed with me for most of the run but near the end I could tell I was holding her back so I encouraged her to keep running when I ran out of steam. She eventually caught David up and they ran through the line together, I think her time was around 2 hours 20 (David started behind us due to a mixup in number colouring).
I think only Matthew felt worse than me and he was quick to say that he'd do it again next year so how could I not do it?
Next though is the Tour de Trigs...