Crossing the Finish Line!

So as you all may have read, I had a half marathon in Oxford on the 14th October. Well, I did it!

Let's start from the beginning........

Aren't we a gorgeous bunch?! =D

The journey to Oxford from Colchester in itself was horrendous... We're talking a train so I could be redirected to a bus, so I could get on another train only to change via the tube in London for another train!!! It was utterly nuts and took nearly 5 hours! By the time Hannah and I got to the hotel (after taking a cab too) we literally, ate something and crashed and burned by 9.30pm. Yeah that's right-- I was all tucked up and snoozing like the hardcore student I am, before 10pm.

To add insult to injury, my body decided it could no longer fend off the plague and I came down with a cold that night. Fun times man, fun times! ;)

Anyway, after a nervously excited nights sleep I woke up to the ringing telephone: 6.30am had arrived! Naturally I rammed on clothes did next to no make up and scraped my hair back into the least annoying hair-do possible before grabbing breakfast and hopping in the cab to the Kassam Stadium! Pre-race meet up with my beautiful Blurters made the jitters disintegrate and before I knew it we were hopping about in the fog waiting for the race to begin!

I will skip the boring bits now! :P Jayne being her usual amazing self ran pace with me for 8 miles. Yes 8 WHOLE miles.... But first let's give a quick run down: Mile 1-4 were quite nice, the sun came out, people were cheering and the dual carriageway held some spectacular views of Oxford but Mile 5 was horrible. It was mostly uphill and having only completed 2 Hill Training sessions my mind was screaming at me to quit already! BUT, I carried on without complaint along another 3 miles, around the river on unfamiliar ground (literally; I'll take pavement over soft muddy ground any day!) before finally admitting to Jayne that I didn't think I could finish. A few reassuring words and some faith in me later, Jayne had convinced me to go at my own pace and make my way to the end without worrying about a finish time! So on the hardest and longest mile, I kept going, I didn't give up even when my mind begged me to stop and my legs outright told me they no longer wanted to be a part of me! Now when I say mile 8 was the longest mile, I really do mean it; I missed the Mile marker for mile 9 and could have cried when finally, I saw the number 10 as I rounded the corner. By Mile 13, I had conquered the hardest part: THE WALL. I was running to finish and I was generally having fun. Then I saw it, a glowing beacon of hope: Mile Marker 13!! Hot-footing it past the numbers I raced into the stadium where the cheers from the Blurters only spurred me on to the finish line, grinning like a lunatic! Now I'd put up my finishers photo but in all honesty I don't like it; I look so tired and my limbs are everywhere that I just look generally weird. :P

BUT, I do have a picture from Mile 9 that I love and in which I am actually smiling! Once I get that in the post I shall put it up but for now I'll leave you with the picture of me and my badass medal, which in all fairness I do deserve, because I didn't quit and I kept going despite the odds beginning to stack against me!

 I run to be... FIERCE!

And just in case you still wanted to sponsor me, here's the link:

http://blurtitout.org/give/run-it-out-catherine-moranda/