I run because I love food…

“I’d like to thank my sponsor, Imodium, for getting me to this point today,” said my uncle at my cousin’s wedding on Saturday as he opened his father-of-the-bride speech. I found out exactly how he felt when I crossed the line at the St Albans Half Marathon on Sunday morning.

It was always going to be a bit tough to run 13.1 miles the morning after a family wedding; the booze started flowing at 1pm at our house and promised to continue until the small hours. Being Captain Sensible for once, I stopped drinking after the meal, and probably saved myself the bother of applying for a second mortgage in the process. At over four quid a pint, and six for a gin and tonic, the drinks were extortionately priced. We were in Hatfield, for goodness sake. This didn’t stop my brother getting anihilated, though this was in part due to some surreptitious importing of alcohol into the hotel. All credit to Gemma, for matching him drink for drink, and not dropping her beer on the dancefloor/losing her keys several times.

I drank an awful lot of water between 7pm and 2am - and I’m sure the bearded group of psychologists at a convention in the neighbouring function room thought I had a urinary infection, as I had to walk past them on the way to the loos every time. I must have walked the equivalent of a half marathon back and forth to the facilities, which partly explains why my feet were absolutely killing me by the end of the night. I was also wearing stupidly high heels.

So I woke up on Sunday morning after just over five hours’ sleep - nicely rehydrated but with sore toes. I also had to make a dash for the bathroom - several times - shortly after waking up. Obviously something in the buffet had not agreed with me. Fortunately, M&D had quite a large stock of Imodium, and I popped one of those before walking down to Verulamium Park to start the race.

I’ve never done a half marathon in the summer. It’s rather lovely walking to the venue in your running kit, and not having to carry seven fleeces, a pair of tracksuit bottoms, hat, scarf and gloves around with you for when you finish. However, it turns out that running on the hottest day of the year so far was not so nice despite the lovely rural course which took us all around the east and south of St Albans, where I grew up.

We kept up a steady ten-minute mile pace for about eight miles - then it really started heating up in the lanes around Bedmond. It was also very very hilly - much more so than the Great North Run and Reading. Thankfully, the organisers had laid on loads of water stations which were well staffed. The marshalls were fabulously supportive - the St Albans Striders are heavily involved in organising the event and many of the marshalls are also runners, which makes a big difference. There was very little in the way of public support away from the town, so the marshalls did a fab job of spurring us all on.

Nonetheless, we seriously slowed down from the nine-mile mark. My running partner was having a bit of a shocker and I thought he might actually hit me when I tried to “motivate” him with some uplifting thoughts about what a lovely day it was, and what a lovely view of the Abbey we had, and how lovely the marshalls were. Luckily, he was too knackered to throw a punch.

We crossed the line in 2:17. Absolutely rubbish time, but a really nice run on the whole. So, I’d like to thank Imodium, my sponsor, for that…