A worrying trend is appearing.  My last blog was about the East Grinstead 10K and this one is about the Ealing Half Marathon.  Help.  I seem to be doing a lot of running!  Husband woke me up at 5.45am on Sunday and I opened my eyes to realise it was obscenely early, a Sunday and I had to run 13.2 miles.  Not a good start.  Husband is always really cheerful at this time of the morning which makes me twice as grumpy.  One minute I was stuffing a bowl of Bran Flakes down and the next minute he was driving me to West London at a nauseating speed.  We arrived at the Start at 7.30am and I made a mental note that I could in fact have spent another 1 hour and 44 minutes in bed as the race didn’t start until 9.15am.  Husband had got a big team together from Mercedes Brentford and I was very unhappy that the first time I met his work colleagues I was stuffed into Lycra and makeup free.  Not exactly dressing to impress.  They all seemed very charming and genuinely pleased to be there at that time in the morning.  What an odd bunch.   As usual I hovered at the back of the 5700 excessively enthusiastic runners and got off to a slow plod.  ‘Come on Joyce’ I heard someone shout, then another, then another.  I then realised that Husband’s PA had got the name on my top printed so small and in such a swirly font that ‘Jayne’ looked like ‘Joyce’.  Oh great.  ‘Do I really look like a Joyce.  Aren’t they all 75 with permed hair and thick glasses?’  Still at least they weren’t shouting ‘Come on Bruce!’  One good thing about the race was that I did not have a clue where I was going nor when the hills were.  This meant that I did not have time for much pre-hill depression and I tried to take them in my stride.  I actually noted that I was overtaking more people than were overtaking me.  This felt great and so unusual.  By Mile 10 everything was starting to ache and ‘Come on Joyce’ was the only thing that kept me going.  I staggered over the finish line 2 hours 34 minutes after I had set off.  Not a great time but it was my fastest ever 5K, 10K and half marathon and I DID NOT COME ANYWHERE NEAR LAST.  The only thing that spoilt the glory was the thought that in 5 week’s time I will have to do twice that distance.  How could that be humanly  possible?

I am running the New York Marathon 2013 for Macmillan Cancer Support. If you are enjoying reading my blogs please donate at: http://www.justgiving.com/jayneandtrevorwebb