On Wednesday I happened to spot that this run was on and it a bout of enthusiasm I entered.

My original aim was reasonably ambitious - I wanted to see if I could break my half marathon PR of 1:54:22 but it was not to be.

I started off way too fast with visions of a sub 1:50:00 and by about the 7km mark I knew I had made a bit of a mistake. I'll freely admit that I showed a lack of mental toughness as that point and slowed right down for a few km. After a while I realised that even if the PR was not to be then it was no reason not to have a good workout and I started doing some sums in my head. I realised that if I pushed myself back down to just under 2 hour 1/2 marathon pace I could still possibly finish in under 2 hours. With 7.5 km to go I needed to make up about 30secs a km and the test was on! At about 4km to go I realised I was slowing down and that the gap was growing slightly. So I decided to just knuckle down and run from marshal to marshal.

The marshals were great btw! Very enthusiastic and every time I passed one they gave my spirits a real lift.

With 2.5 km to go I needed to make up about 60 seconds and my legs were tired but I kept going as fast as I can. I was passing quite a few folks at this point and that helped keep me going. At the 400m to go mark I didn't think I was going to make it. I turned on the gas and started to go faster. At about 100m to go I went in to a full on sprint as fast as I could and I could see the clock was 1:59 something. I went under the banner at 1:59:59 (.99 I'm sure) and had to go have a crouch down to get my breath back!

I got a prize for a fantastic sprint finish as the finish line guy had been cheering me on and I went home feeling very happy!