Running Man

I knew it was going to be a full on day but when I opened the door to my running hombre Steve Ford (christ alive I know a lot of blokes called Steve), but when he said in a blurry way: "Mate, I'm not feeling it." I knew it was going to a slow start. I wasn't feeling it either to be honest. We were driving up to the Severn Bridge half. I fancied doing the race because I'd never done the course before and I'd heard it was interesting. I really should have studied the course but other than training I'd put no effort into it, so I didn't know what to expect,

It was a lot bigger than I'd expected with a runners village in Usk, so Steve and I had time to grab a coffee and yap. Actually that was one of the best things about that morning, the chance to have a catch up with Steve before his wedding a week later. The course started off by running across the old Severn Bridge, which was closed for the morning. With a refreshing lack of fuss we got underway. Now Steve had said that he was okay with me running off ahead of him, but I was a little ashamed at how quickly I ditched him, it was pretty much in the first mile, but he said later that he was okay with it. 

Running across the Severn Bridge was amazing, and I did manage to look to my right and rake some of the stunning view in. I looked down at my Garmin and I was doing a good pace and I thought 'I can't keep this up.' even though it felt comfortable, so I just churned through it. We ran around England for a few miles and then ran back over the Severn Bridge around Mile 8 I think, at which point the breeze coming across the Severn was very welcome, and it was downhill at that point which helped. It was a good course but at around mile 10 there was a steep slope down, all fine until you realise that at mile 11 you're going to have to run up it. There was a bit of time before the hill came around again, so I managed to get myself psychologically prepared for it. It didn't feel too bad but it did knock a bit of wind out of me. Then it was just the final grind of the last 2