Lake Vyrnwy Half

I've been looking forward to racing at the Lake Vyrnwy Half Marathon as its a race I've wanted to do before but didn't fit in with what I was doing.  So when I woke up on Wednesday morning with a really sore throat which then developed into a full blown cold as the day went on I was gutted.

I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday resting in between work and dosing up on vit C, echinacea and lemsip.  By Saturday I was starting to feel a bit better but not great.  Sunday morning I woke feeling really wiped out.  I was in two minds whether to race.  In the end I decided I'd only sit at home regretting it if I didn't do the race and if I had a bad one it would be better than not bothering so off I went!

Its an afternoon start so at least I didn't have to rush around!  When I got there and went for a jog warm up my legs actually felt quite good.  The race started and I ran just behind the lead girl.  I stayed with her for about 5/6k but although my legs felt good my breathing was all over the place and my throat felt really dry.  I had to back off a bit but felt happy just to be doing the race.  

Apart from not feeling at my best I really enjoyed the race.  I had a strong last couple of miles and picked off a few men and finished in 2nd place.  I was surprised to finish in 77.45 as I didn't expect to get much under 80 mins!

I'm so glad I did it.  It the past if I've been ill leading into a race I've normally decided against racing but this shows that as long as you take it easy you are likely to end up with a reasonable result.  I really did enjoy this race and hope to come back next year.  Less than a week to recover now before I do the Warrington Half.  I just hope its enough time to properly get rid of this cold and for my legs to recover.