Autumn half marathon goal: Great Eastern Run

Try again, fail again, fail better.

If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know I’ve failed many times over at things. I failed multiple times before actually running a Boston Qualifier. I had so much fun doing that, I decided not to enter and now I’ve started failing to qualify all over again.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran a 10k PB. It was the first time I’d ever run under 45 minutes – something I’d tried several times over to do. It happened, not easily, but unexpectedly. Unexpected because, at 37,  I’m several years older than when I last tried to run under 45 minutes and I’ve had a baby since then too.

I don’t know if I was using my age and post-natal body as an excuse not to try to do certain things, but I was letting it limit what I though was possible. I had a goal I was chasing before I became pregnant that didn’t happen, and because it was out of reach then, I assumed it would be off the cards for good.

In 2016, I wanted to run a sub-1:40 half marathon. It didn’t happen and I dropped out at 7 miles.  Since my recent 10k PB, I’ve been thinking about the half marathon a lot. I’ve no interest in running a marathon right now, mainly because they take up a lot of time and partly because I feel like I’ve achieved what I want to there. But me and the half marathon distance have unfinished business.

It’s 12 weeks until the Great Eastern Run. It was my first ever half marathon back in 2009. Three years ago I dropped out, the following year I ran the 5k pregnant and last year I sat it out. But this year I’ll be lining up again. The goal from three years ago was 99 minutes or less, and I’m all out of excuses for why I can’t give it a try again.