On a cold rainy Thursday morning I boarded a plane in the hope of sunshine in Limassol Cyprus. After a 4 ½ hour flight this certainly wasn’t the case! But I wasn’t going to let it dampen my spirits, especially as I was met at the hotel with a lovely glass of fizz and a wonderful group of ladies from the Run Mummy Run community.
After a day of acclimatising to the clouds and rain!! Saturday morning was the 5K Primetel Corporate race. This was a race like no other, surrounded by men in stilts, pushchairs, ladies with shopping bags and big drum bands, I set off with the ladies weaving around the masses, this was not going to be a fast race! The rain was still pouring but it didn’t dampen our spirits and the race was complete in no time at all. Warm up for the next day complete.
Sunday morning I was rudely awoken at 5:15am (3:15UK time!) ready for an early breakfast and to catch the race transfer bus at 6:15am. A short ride and thankfully no rain today, I was at the bag drop. After a few poses on the pier in the sunshine I made my way to the start of the Muskita Limassol Half Marathon. I buddied up close to the 2 hour pacer in the hope he could get me round, which was now turning into a very warm and sunny race.
I started strong and running with the pacer was keeping me in check, however the sun was beating down and it was beginning to get a bit hot. I kept my cool and manged to get to the turn around point in good time, I was on for my sub two hours! Thankfully at this point a grey cloud descended, but unfortunately accompanied with a head wind. I had to dig deep to keep my pace and thankfully a small decline certainly helped.
The last three miles were tough and with the finish hard to spot with the numerous sponsors arches, it was a long finishing straight. Thankfully I could finally see the timing clock and I had only a few seconds to spare to finish in under 2 hours. Finally crossing the line at 1:59:45 with the pacer close behind I was ecstatic, I'd done what I’d set out to do. I was very happy and celebrated with a post race beer, non alcoholic of course!
Comentários