Bournemouth Marathon Festival Half Marathon

I was up earlier than expected thanks to jet lag, and got dressed and ready. I decided to leave earlier than planned as I was not 100% sure about where I had to go for the bus. The start line was about 3 miles from the finish, but I had got a shuttle bus ticket for this reason. I started walking then realised I didn't bring my food so stopped at a Tesco Metro to get something to eat. I managed to find the bus stop and got on to find everyone really quiet! For me it was a really late start so it was quite funny to hear people talking about how early it was!

We arrived at the start line, and found a cafe open so I got some tea to try and warm up. I tried to keep my bag as long as possible so I could keep my layers on. I gave my bag to the cadets who were in charge of getting them to the finish line, and instantly froze! I found out where I needed to go and chatted to a few people before going to the start pen. While there I met some other charity runners, and we started talking about half marathons. Quite a few were doing this as their first half and were nervous about that. I was nervous about being frozen!

The start was slow as we were the final pen, but at least we kept moving even if slow. I started with one of the other charity guys, but we soon got separated as he was clearly faster! I settled into a pace, doing 2/1 run walk intervals. I was so much faster than my last half, and worried a little about this but then decided just to see how things went. The route took us around a few local streets, where people were out cheering us on, playing music and generally encouraging everyone. It was cool getting people shouting out the name of my charity and telling me I was running for a good cause.

I felt strong and smashed my strava times for all distances except 1km. I slowed a little in the middle just in case I crashed, but was careful to ensure I took gels regularly and drank water at each station. At one point we went along the coast, then headed up and around before going back down to the coast near the finish line. At this point, we ran a route similar to the 5km and up and down Boscombe pier before returning. It was great to know that we had just 5km to go....yay!

I carried on, and chatted a little with some of the others. We saw the sweeper car at the back, and knew there was no way it could catch us. I was well within the cut off. As I crossed the finish line, the announcer told the crowd I was used to running in Malaysia so was feeling cold! I found Sian, and went off to get my finisher goodies. It felt great! I went to the Julia's house tent where they gave us both coffee and cakes, and I waited for a massage. Overall it was a great experience and I can't wait to see if I can do it all again next year!

Bournemouth Marathon Festival 5km run - 3rd October 2015

This was my first race in the UK and the first I was doing with my sister. I decided it would be a good warm up for the half the next day so I could get used to the temperature.

We arrived in Bournemouth in good time to check in to the hotel and figure out how to get to the race village. We got changed and ready, and wandered down via the cycle lanes. It was a beautiful walk, and there were so many runners just walking up who had done the 10km so we got a good look at the finisher medal and t-shirt. Nice! More inspiration! Sian was a bit worried but decided she needed to finish in order to collect the items at the end.

As we had plenty of time, we found the Julia's house stall so I could give them the cash I had raised towards my target, and chatted with people there before heading down to the seafront. I loved the views there, and went around taking photos as Sian rested. We saw the final finishers of the 10km come in, and heard announcements for the start of our race. People had dressed up for the occasion and I wished we had put paint on after all! Some runners had clear umbrellas with light trails, and they looked like jellyfish. We had all been asked to wear fluorescent clothing and most people had done this. A few wore their finisher tees from the 10km or from last year. The atmosphere was amazing.

We headed for the start when it opened, our pen was at the back so we joined the lines there and collected our headtorches. People were happily chatting and welcoming each other, and then we started. As I was doing the half the next day and the main aim was just to finish, we got to a nice fast walking pace and stayed there, with a few short running intervals at times, partly to warm up! The route was nice, heading along the sea front near the beach houses, then an out and back on the pier and we found the finish line. They called out our names as we came across which was really cool. We got our goodie bags which were totally fab, then headed off to find food. We had no idea what we could find and Sian said she had had trouble there before so we wished we hadn't left the sea front. We then looked at foursquare and discovered a Wetherspoons....result! As it was Saturday it was chocka but we got a seat outside on the top level and ate lovely food.

Borneon Run 26th Sept 2015

This was my last run in Malaysia for the time being, and so it was fitting that it was in my local area, so to speak!

A lot about the organisation rang alarm bells, and things like the parking situation almost put me off going as I wanted my last run in Malaysia to be a good one. But then I decided to do it, as the race last week had been good and this was just 7km....what could go THAT wrong? After all the race was promising a Sabah experience, so it could not be perfect lol.

We decorated ourselves in the paint Karen bought for me at the expo, and this paint never seemed to dry in the heat! it was fun so we painted our faces and arms. We donned our race tshirt and  bracelet of courage, and headed to a friend of Karen's house where we would be parking as they were using the parking area for stalls and a concert.....ummm.....why not use the stadium for it? Luckily we went the long way managing to avoid the mega jump across a sewer that would not have been fun in the dark! Apparently there were shuttle buses and people were encouraged to pay to park at Suria and pay for parking there and pay 15 RM for the shuttle.....for us it would also mean going a long way out of our way to go into town! Parking at Suria on a Saturday night is never an easy task, but add thousands of runners to the mix and chaos is to be expected!

When we got there of course people were parking in the car park and the road was not quite closed yet! But seeing the chaos later meant we were glad we did what we did..............

We wondered around the stalls and managed to somehow find the Fruto stall, and got pineapple, orange and ginger juice to drink. Yummy! We then headed to the start and waited around forever it seemed. Of course the race started late in true Sabah style. The next day we found out it was because the dancers had to walk to the water station. We also found out that we would not be collecting charms along the way as there were too many people, so these would be given at the end. I was a little disappointed as part of the appeal of the race was completing the bracelet as we went along from station to station. It was hard to run at times as people were walking erratically and stopping dead in front of you. We did some weaving at times. We got to a place near the half way point where there were UV lights, but by then all my paint had come off with sweat! Then we saw a massive crowd and discovered the water station was in there....somewhere! It was hard to figure out where it actually was. We got our shot size cup of revive and went on! We then got made to stop and no one knew why - we got given an elastic band and told to keep it.

At times there were wires running across the road, uncovered, that could easily trip people up. So dangerous!

We got back to the finish line without any incident, but then realised no one had mentioned HOW we get the charms! We found a group of people amassed around tables and got more revive then found another group and were asked to hand in the rubber band to get a fingerprint on our t-shirt....um! We were informed that this would allow us to collect the charms. Why not just give in the band, surely that would save time....we eventually found the charms and no one even checked our fingerprint! It was all pretty chaotic! And of course one charm did not fit properly.......enough said!

As we walked back to the car we saw loads of people trying to finish and getting confused. I decided that it had been true Sabah style and that I may have been more disappointed had it been more organised!