It was 16th October 2022, I was undertrained having Hardly ran anything since Race to the Stones. New jobs role, busy hours and generally life had taken over.
The day before I’d been so I’ll (turns out I had got vertigo) and to be honest even when I was getting in the car with my loyal crew member Stu I was wondering if I should be going, but in my heart I needed and wanted to go to do something for me.
I had made the decision to travel on the day to keep the cost of hotels down and use the park and bus service which was fantastically organised and would definitely do this again.
I don’t know what I expected from this route to be honest I hadn’t really looked at the terrain much we set off with an amazing atmosphere. There was no staggered start just join your area with the pacer you wished to follow, so I joined around 5hours 45 minutes. I had already decided I was going to drop it down and Jeff 20:30 on this one.
We set off and the atmosphere was amazing, it wasn’t long before we hit York Minster where the streets were lined with encouragement.
The route from then on was definitely undulating I plodded along and can recall a few long stretches where you passed other runners going the opposite way, some of those stretches were long. I recall being at about 12 miles and the 6 hour pacers passing me I was still quiet determined at this point and a few minutes later passed them, I managed to keep them behind until just after mile 16 then they just seemed to plough past and to be honest the energy was lacking to fight to be in front of them what did it matter what time I finished as long as I did.
At mile 21 my hip really struggled and it was this point I knew I’d not done the training I needed to end strong, my walk breaks got longer and running got shorter but I put one foot in front of the other. At mile 24 ish I met a fellow girls that Jeff Jeffer who had a foot injury and we walked for a couple of miles together chatting it was only the last couple of miles when the pain killers seemed to kick in or maybe it was the adrenalin that I picked things back up a bit.
I remember seeing the finish line and that burst of energy coming out of no where. They day I cross a finish line and say never again will be the day I hang up my running shoes, at the moment I can’t see that happening soon, that crossing the finish line never gets boring!
Yorkshire Marathon did not disappoint , it was tough I’m not going lie but it was worth it and I’m making it my mission to return next year, more prepared for those hills!
6 hours 21 minutes and 44 seconds not a personal best but now my worse time either, not that it mattered.
