Because I’m ridiculous, and slightly anxious about the half-marathon in September, to prove to myself I would be OK, I decided to run one today.

Yes, really. I am an idiot.

Still, I did it, and feel pretty good about it (the achievement, not in general. My legs are jelly). The furthest I’d run before today was a 14km run a couple of weeks ago, so this was 50% on top of the previous best. I managed it in 2h11 minutes, which I am happy with – hopefully in 4 months I’ll be able to shave 15 minutes off that and come in under 2 hours. Although today’s run was pretty gentle – mostly flat, good conditions, no traffic to contend with…

I need to get some better t-shirts, though, as the chafing (I know, I know, too much information) got uncomfortable after kilometer 4, so I ended up running barechested (calm down, people) for most of the remainder of the run. Which on a blustery, drizzly Spring day raised a few eyebrows, I can tell you…

Runkeeper went a bit mental after about 16km so I don’t have proper stats on the run, but I was going at what felt like quite a gentle pace of about 9.5-10km/h (a split of 6m30s per km), which was sustainable. That said, the last 3-4 km were really tough – at the limit of my current level of fitness (if not endurance). My legs are slightly wobbly now and I think I’m going to take a few days off… especially as I’m considering entering “beat the banana” (it’s not as rude as it sounds) on Thursday. Anyone fancy joining for the 5km sprint against a man dressed as a banana?