'Go Pink Top Lady':Brighton Half Marathon, it's a PB for me!

There were big questions in my head prior to arriving at the Brighton Half Marathon start line. As a fairly newly converted (over a year) trail runner, the thought of running 13.1 miles on tarmac, surrounded by hordes of thousands of runners, jostling for positions, with noise and busyness around me, was not a pleasant one.

The start was no different to my expectations, we jostled to reach the baggage storage area, which seemed a long way from the start, nearly lost various members of our party, I managed to squeeze a spot in the purple zone. Once the race started we crawled to the start, enough time for me to nip out of my pen and visit the handy porta-loos, then nip back in again.

Once we got started on the real business of running, there was more jostling, it was quite cramped, and you couldn't overtake very easily.  But...

I clocked my first mile just over 10 mins, not bad for all the human traffic. The following 12 miles I managed to keep a steady 9 something minute mile pace. I felt really strong and I was so happy to have my daughter there cheering me on, smiling and waving at me, it was such an encouragement. I even stopped to have a quick chat with Amy, Steve's parents and Shaun, Steve's brother-in-law.

I finished in 2:07:53, which is my longest, fastest and probably most consistently paced run to date . It's given me confidence that I can slowly move from the slow paces that I've been running to gradually increasing my overal speed and pace per mile. It's even made me think of the possibility of achieving the hallowed sub 2 hour half marathon-what an achievement that would be!

And...I did enjoy it, it was a beautiful sunny day, the crowd were loud and supportive as ever in Brighton. Towards the end, I was getting tired it was heating up, I heard a voice shout 'Go pink top lady'...I was wearing a pink top, I didn't care if she didn't mean me (most of the women were wearing pink!!), It made me smile and helped me enjoy the last few hundred meters.

As I crossed the line and wandered to find a drink I met with Steve and we enjoyed a lovely stroll to get my bag and try and find the others. It was a PB day, and one I think I'll enjoy thinking about for a long while.

I guess running is running, wherever you do it! My heart is still in the hills though, there's no jostling, no shouting, just the hills, mud and countryside. Perfect!