This weekend it was the 21km de Blagnac. This is my local half and, in my opinion, totally unmissable… except that my husband is on the other side of the world for work, leaving me with a Sunday morning childcare issue.
Happily, I found a babysitter (the first time I’ve ever used one… in almost nine years of parenting!) and she turned out to be brilliant. But I decided that it was a little unfair to leave a 15-year-old with three kids all morning, so that meant taking little DD along to the race.
Actually this chimed well with my coach’s instructions: just two weeks out from my marathon, I was not, repeat NOT, allowed to run hard. A difficult rule to follow with rivals from my club and elsewhere out in force, but I would do my best!
I wouldn’t usually choose to race 21km pushing a 4-year-old, but I’m so glad that I did. We had an absolute blast and were cheered on at top volume all over the streets of Blagnac. I felt like a proper sporting celebrity!! Obviously there were lots of people who know me (from the athletics club, parents from school and the like) but there also seemed to be heaps of other people going wild for us too. So much fun!
We started conservatively in the middle of the pack and got really blocked in at the start. It took a minute to cross the start line and then nearly five to jog and swerve through the first kilometre. After that we were able to find more of a rhythm and accelerated to about 4:15/km pace. The slow start paid off as we spent the rest of the race flying past people.
We kept on overtaking (and drinking in the incredible atmosphere) until we crossed the line in 1:30:36 (chip time) in 10th place overall female. My best ever buggy half marathon!
With the jog there and back it also meant I did a “half marathon sandwich” of a smidge under 30km – perfect for my last long run in the marathon build-up.
My little passenger was a total star. She ate her snacks, played with her Sylvanian Families and had a short nap, without getting perturbed by all the people wanting to peek in at her and give her high fives!
The cherry on the cake was being awarded the category prize for fastest M0 (that’s women aged 35-39) and going up on the little stage with DD to collect it.
An absolutely wonderful race that will live long in my memory.
