Bath Half Marathon

Yesterday, I ran in my first ever half marathon (yes, this is K writing…can you believe it?).

For years I’ve said that I wanted to get into better shape. I just wanted to reclaim muscle tone that’s been lost to desk jobs over the years. So, while I’ve frequented my various gyms’ steam rooms frequently over the years, I decided to turn the knob up a bit last Spring. I signed up with trainer Steve who has taught me to use the various machines that I hadn’t a clue of before. And, perhaps most importantly, to use them safely! And, by seeing him once per week, he also keeps me honest and monitors my muscles’ development–adjusting my weekly routine to help me maintain a well-rounded workout regime. It’s actually been fun! I guess it just goes to show, sometimes it’s just best to pay someone who knows what they’re doing to help you out with things.

Upon finally reclaiming some of my basic muscles after a few month’s work, the next natural step was to sign up for some sort of competitive event–a goal of some sort that would help to increase my cardio and keep me progressing. Trainer Steve softly suggested a 10k (mainly because I’m such a girly girl). To my trainer’s surprise, I signed up for the Bath Half Marathon. A half marathon is just over 13 miles and for a girl who hadn’t ran a mile since sophomore year of high school (15 years ago!), the training was admittedly tough, but surprisingly manageable.

Basically, my weekly workout programme has included running 30 minutes at least once per week since last May. I signed up for a 5k (3ish miles) with G in September. I ran 45-50 minutes in a go by November. And then the weather turned. Have I mentioned that I don’t deal well with wet or cold very admirably? All the wet winter snow of December didn’t bode well for my running habit. So, I took it to the gym. While the treadmill’s not ideal for training, it kept me healthy and warm while I whittled away the miles.

Luckily for me, my race day in Bath was graced with Blue Skies and sunshine! Having done the hard work in training, the race didn’t actually seem too tough. I’m not a fast runner, I definitely take my time, but I beat my personal goal and was still smiling through the end after 2 hours and 21 minutes of constant running movement. Thankfully all muscles seem to me ok today. Not bad! [Though perhaps my easy time of it today is also due to the 6 hours we spent in the yummy Bath Spa following the race, hmmm.... ]

So now, this brings me to the boobs. Loads of people wear fancy dress to the races. And it’s a lot of run to see the craziness that they dream up. But, alas, going slow (as I do), it’s not at all uncommon to be passed by Wilma Flintstone, PacMan…or a giant ice cream cone. But, apparently the guys have gotten in on the whole ‘running for breast cancer’ trend with a twist. T-shirts emblazoned with ‘Jogging for Jugs’ graced many a male torso yesterday, but were obviously topped by these gargantuan boobs. And yes, they beat me :0

So, if there were ever a moral to our blog posts, this one would be ‘GET FIT, it’s easy….and fun (even if you’re beaten by Boobs)!’