Watson Sushi: Abersoch Half-Marathon

Never EVER in a million years would I think that I could run a half-marathon...if you were to ask me about it five or even three years ago. I was simply never a runner. In fact, today I was trying to remember anything sporty (as a class) that I did after I graduated from high school. Nothing really! Gym and stuff like that, but not really a sport. So this is big for me. Really Big!

Almost four years ago (in 2011), in Misawa, my friend Bridget convinced me to run a 5K with her around Thanksgiving. We completed the "race" in 39 minutes by jogging/walking. I couldn't believe that I actually did it and felt all right! And that was a start. A very slow start.

After moving to England and running here and there, maybe two miles, maybe three sometimes, I worked towards just being happy being able to complete a 5 K without having to walk. Then in 2014, in January, Robert decided he was going to run a half marathon at Selsdon. I thought he was crazy, but I admired his sudden ambition. He was amazing and somehow trained for it in just two months from scratch. By the end of the summer of 2014, I started running a little bit more regularly and trying to increase my mileage to 4, 5 and 6 miles. So all through the winter of 2014-2015, I ran about three times a week. My goal for 2015 was to run 500 miles, which meant about 10-12 miles a week (very doable). Finally, at the end of May, my friend found a half marathon in Wales that she said she really wanted to sign up for together. At that point I was not quite sure if I even WANTED to train for a half-marathon...it is 13.1 miles after all... and who has time for running for two hours? By then my longest run ever was something around 8 miles, and that was only once.

After much thinking and thinking, I decided to sign up. It was a huge and scary step for me, but I had a plan and I knew that would really help me. I signed up about 9 weeks before the race that was happening on September 19th. I found a 7 week training program on one of the blogs that fit my life schedule with minimal tweaking and went for it. Basically, I had to run four times a week with Sunday being my rest day and another two days of tennis and strength (strength is the hardest day for me as I still don't quite enjoy exercises like that;)). Once a week a did my long run and although the kids were out of school through the majority of my training days, I somehow managed to still do those 8, 9 and 10 milers with Katya's help (she watched the boys). Some runs were more pleasant and rewarding than others, but all were beneficial. I was very blessed to not ever be really sore after any of them, which is still amazing to me. I learnt that for ME, having a mandarine orange and a fruit baby puree pouch was a great snack after 7-8 miles:). One of the biggest things was music! I rarely run without music, and the biggest treat is loading up NEW songs and not knowing what is coming up next.

So back to the race day! It turned out that only two of my friends signed up for the race, but we still had lots of fun. So good to have familiar faces at the beginning of the race and at the end:). The race was set on one of the most gorgeous places in Wales--Abersoch, right next to the sea. It took us a very long time to get there on Friday night as traffic was horrible and then our GPS sent us through Snowdonia National Park's windy roads with sheep right on the road everywhere. We managed to rest and get to Abersoch on time in the morning, parked, met our friends, walked to the start line (found a bathroom at one of the restaurants on the way because there was going to be NO toilets along the running course...just wild nature).

The weather turned out just gorgeous! I can't believe how lucky we were--warm and sunny in Wales!

About to start! We are the three crazy ladies in bright colors if you can't find us right away.

Our families were staying behind to cheer. They had two hours to kill on the beach:))

See you soon!

So now pictures stop. There was no way I was going to take any pictures while running:). I'll make my story (sort of) short. The route we followed was a picturesque rural Welsh road, most of it was pavement. We started out all together, but separated after the first half a mile. I was a bit worried at around mile 3 or 4 whether or not this whole race was a good idea as I was feeling a bit tired ALREADY. The course was hilly, and when you live in the flattest part of the country, hill training is difficult to do. So my tactics was to run my normal pace, slow down a bit up hills (and if I had to walk a tiny bit, that's ok), and then relax my body and go fast downhill. It's very weird, because I felt so great going downhill, no pain in my knees or shins or anything, I relaxed my limbs and passed everyone every time. Hope I wasn't damaging anything...but it worked!

After the first water station at mile 5.5, I felt great! I remember running at mile 6 and 7, thinking that this is unbelievable! I am half way through the race and I feel so strong! I had my "baby food pouch" (don't laugh...it works for me) and a bit later a mandarine orange. At mile 8, I had to slow down for a steep hill and stumbled on my friend, Emma, who is a much faster runner than me normally, but was not feeling great after not being able to train properly due to sickness in weeks prior AND feeling too hot. I thought the weather was just fabulous! Around 65F:) So I jogged with her for a bit and then took off.

Everything was going fantastic (but tough with hills) till I got to the last steep hill at mile 11. It was definitely a walking hill for me...although I tried to sort of run it...by then my legs were tired. There was no pavement any more, just a trail with rocks and mud and water trickling down the side. The cool thing at this point is that my emotional preparation kicked in--my goal was to survive till mile 11 and then let the adrenaline do the work for the last two miles. I knew I'd be walking that last hill anyway, so my mind was at ease and I was feeling quite rejuvenated by the time I reached the top of that hill. I had about another mile to run that was not downhill, but I knew I was soo close. So I actually felt like I got my "second breath" and passed a couple of people just because I was so excited I was still alive and feeling well.

At mile 12.5 I was making a great time, made the last turn before the finish line and saw that the last kilometer was going to be on the beach. I looked at my time and thought that there is no way this is going to take me 5 minutes to run....

This is that beach on the picture below.

No matter how much I tried....sand running was hard. You are tired and your feet sink into the sand AND you had to do hurdles over sand beams on the beach that are like tide breakers or something. That was fun...

Apparently, Robert wasn't expecting me as early as I came to the finish line and almost missed my grand moment:)

It's really an indescribable feeling of accomplishment when you run a race and finish it. All that training and perseverance pays off. And no, I wasn't super fast, but I felt great! I ran it faster than I thought I would in 2:15:29. That is #188 out of 232...but oh well:)

My friend, Linnea, beat me by like 6 minutes, she ran up every hill. My friend Emma was just several minutes behind me. So we were all pretty happy.

So grateful for my family's help and encouragement and hours and hours they spent without me so I could go on my runs. I do it for me but also for them.