Congratulations everybody!

Well done to everybody who completed the half marathon in Birmingham today!
Now, if you're anything like Hannah and I, you are feeling exhausted, slightly sick and you're muscles feel about three times heavier then they did at about 9.29am.
Hannah ran a time of 2 hours 12 mins, roughly what she hoped for, and I ran a time of 2 hours 8 minutes, which was slightly slower than what I was hoping for.
But the aim of the day was to get round the course, raise some cash for charity, and have some fun - so well done to everyone who finished the course.
Our races weren't without incident though.
Hannah was extremely chatty when she finished, bending my ear about what happened during the race while I struggled to breathe.
Then, all of a sudden, she turned as white as a ghost and vomitted in one of the ICC's bins. Classy, my girlfriend.
As for me, I had a great 11 miles and was set to finish in under two hours. But then everything shut down. Totally.
I had pins and needles in my arms and legs, I felt sick and giddy, and I was starting to get tunnel vision. If I had seen a paramedic I would have stopped... but I didn't. Instead I saw someone just as pained as myself and together we limped across the line.
Either someone spiked my water with LSD, or my virus, which I was still recovering from, decided to play a few tricks on me.
Anyone else got any horror stories or funny anecdotes?
One suprising result was my boss finishing in 1 hour 49 minutes. He's 50, quite small, and doesn't look the athletic type. I reckon he took a short cut.
I've got a few more things to say about the organisation of the race. Toilets, the goody bag, the late start and the 11th mile water station are among my gripes. But that's for another blog.
I'm sure Hannah will have something interesting to say too... when she's finished hugging the loo bowl!




Hi Paul,
Well done on your time, even if it was a little slower than you hoped. I made it round in 2:21, bit disappointed but was only averaging 8-10 miles a week training so only myself to blame.
There was no water left at 10 or 11 miles by the time i got there which was frustrating, apart from that i thought the organisation wasn't too bad for a first event.
Enjoyed your blogs, you'll have to do them again when you step up to a full marathon?!
Steve (Mike&Ali's friend)
Well done to all of you. Paul, I thought I was going to miss getting a photo of you coming into the line, fortunatly it was obvious you hadn't held anything back for a sprint finish.
Congratulations, it looked like torture.
Mike.
Thanks to both. I agree Steve, no water at the 10 and 11 miles was frustrating to say the least. The point when you are most tired and dehydrated is surely the most crucial to be socked up with water.
Mike, it was torture - I'll be putting your pic of me running (in slow motion) up here later.