Running For Sarah : The Half Marathon

The World Record for the half marathon is an astonishing 58min 23s. That's for all of the 21.0975km involved. The time means that Zersenay Tadesse ran each km in approx 2m 46s. Can you conceive that ? I don't even pretend that I'll ever run any km under 3m and consider it a personal breakthrough to run even one single km of a race under 4m ! This is the context. On Sunday 4th Sept some 22,542 runners took part in Glasgow's Great Scottish Run and Kenyan Joseph Birech completed the half marathon in just over 61m. Delighted for Glasgow that the event attracts such a calibre athlete. That's a world class performance and I was privileged to be one of the runners taking part in a world class city half marathon.

Joseph Birech

The choice of the Great Scottish Run was to fundraise £1000 in support of Sarah. I have been overwhelmed by the generosity and warmth of support for her. As of the time of writing Sarah's choice of charity - Northern Ireland Heart Chest and Stroke Association - have benefitted in excess of £1800. A thank-you to all of you who contributed. At the time of writing Sarah is once again receiving care from the Craigavon Hospital staff and the messages of support are and continue to be much appreciated.

There is still an opportunity to support NICHS and the link is here. As it turned out Sarah was joined in Craigavon Hospital by 2 of my Aunts who were admitted for very different reasons. Margaret and Edna are now back at home and we wish them both speedy and full recoveries. All 3 of these special ladies were in my thoughts during the run.

The Sunday morning was bright and blue skyed and the atmosphere in George Square was buzzing. As it always is on race day. The 10k group got under way at 10am leaving the half-Marathon and wheel chair athletes starting at 11am. My employer, Scottish Sea Farms, had offered incentives for staff to participate and fundraise along the way. The group did well and have over £12k raised to date. These are tough times for charities as people have so much less disposable cash so congrats to the SSF staff and families who made the initiative work so well. Now more than ever charities need your assistance. So follow the SSF example.

Scottish Sea Farms : Great Scottish Run Team 2011

I always forget how "bottlenecked" these races can be but 11k people heading through Glasgow can be a squeeze. This year it was almost impossible to even get through the fence to the start chute. The closed roads help but people nearly aways start too fast with too high expectations and by the 1st km many are falling back down the field. The adrenaline of the start line is hard to counteract but 21k is  along way and demands realistic pacing. 

George Square : Glasgow

If you can weave your way through the opening 800m you will eventually have the opportunity to run over the famous M8 and out towards Bellahouston Park and onwards to Pollock Park. By 2k the field had thinned and I found myself with a group I was able to stick with for most of the next 90m.

While my own focus has been triathlon orientated for the last 3 months I have been conscious of giving as much as possible for this race. I know that many older, injured or infirm people would give anything for the ability to run or even walk 10k. Actually even 5k - or in some cases 100m unaided. We simply cannot take our health and fitness for granted. Yes, as individuals we have to work at maintaining our fitness but the freedom, good luck and privilege of being able to simply "turn up and run" is not universally available to everyone. If you can do it - appreciate it, cherish it, work at it, prize it and maintain it. So much quality of life is about movement - if you can walk, run, swim or cycle then "Just Do It !" Think about that and today buy a copy of Runner's World and get inspired. As for me ... well here's the data :

If you want to you can follow the route by clicking on "View Details" as above. This takes you to the Garmin Connect site where you can view the individual km splits (3rd KM is sooo wrong !) ; also by clicking on the green "Start Click" map (when in Garmin Connect) you can retrace my whole race (not in real time thankfully). 

What's the difference between 1h 29.59 and 1h 30.01 ? 2 seconds ? Don't think so. Any runner or triathlete will attest to the importance of certain time barriers. Is a 2:59:59 marathon really just 1 second different from a 3h marathon ? For many people these times are miles and months of work apart. It was important to make this a respectible time. I was running with a purpose and I didn't want to let a very special lady down (in fact on the day I was running for 3). Businesses such as Scottish Sea Farms, Storvik UK, Biomar UK and Fusion Marine had been extremely generous and I needed to acknowledge their support and contribution. People from Northern Ireland like Pamela, Rachel, Jonathan, Michelle and Eoin had felt a connection logged-on and wanted to help. Family in Canada wanted to show their support for Sarah and the charity she adopted. Many thanks to you all for that. So when it seemed a sub 90m half marathon was even remotely possible I had a huge incentive to dig deep and throw in any surges I could to make it happen.

The support of bands through the parks, being sprayed by hoses outside houses and the kind offers of jelly babies or oranges from the crowd helped keep the pace up : 4m13s per km, 4:14, 4:18 all through the 13-15k marks. The Garmin's shrill tone alerting the km splits was a constant reminder. Stay focused. The route descends a little from 17 to 20k and offsets the fatigue. By 20k my surges grew shorter and each more tough to get through. Legs heavier and the runners more sparse around me. Gradually the sounds of Glasgow Green and the finish line were evident - but no visual signs. 4:15 pace though the 20th km. Slower - but hanging in there. Doing this for Sarah. Approaching the 21k the route swings back, narrows and the crowd swells, the hub-bub of the finish line is all around but where is it.?  Where is it ?  21k pace : 4:11. Faster. Doing this for Sarah, for Edna, for Margaret. Don't let yourself down. Now it's 1h 29. 05 ... the pace must quicken. How far now ? It must be soon, surely ... then the joy, the absolute joy of the finish line. There - just there. A surge from somewhere - almost outside of yourself. But there it is. 1:29:35.

To be able to do this is a glimpse of what it's like to fully expereince life. I am proud to dedicate this small effort to Sarah and to those who work tirelessly for others in NICHS.