Today I got one push nearer to the London Marathon after completing the Race Your Pace half marathon in 1hour 15 minutes and 44 seconds and achieved the qualifying time needed. I’m not getting too carried away though until I’ve actually had my place confirmed by London. That being said I have just celebrated with a curry and a bag of Haribo, which is a slight deviation from the post-race nutritional guidance I’ve read about in the training guides I’ve printed off.  

I absolutely loved today and my time meant that I finished third overall, which I am made up with. If I’m not mistaken I was the first person to complete the course in a racing wheelchair, which of course means I also set a course wheelchair record! My training has obviously served me well as I felt great all the way round and I can’t tell you how relieved I was that there was hardly any headwind to push in to. The only slight issue is my damn blisters which are not showing any sign of going away.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t incredibly nervous when I set off from home this morning. This was partly because I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got to the event. I shouldn’t have worried though as the organisation of the race couldn’t have been better and from my point of view. It was a superb event and I couldn’t recommend it enough to any wheelchair athletes or runners wanting to prepare for London.

They set me off three minutes before anyone else and making sure I didn’t get overtaken was a great motivation in getting round in time. The other thing that was superb was the steward who cycled round in front of me and cleared runners out of my way as I made my way past backmarkers on the later laps of the race. It was also a really friendly race and I’m glad I didn’t wear my IPod so I could hear the encouragement from the runners I passed on my way round.

I was also incredibly impressed with the pre-race information and the speed in which the results were available and able to be printed off. The results are also on-line if you want to take a look http://humanrace.co.uk/race-your-pace-half-marathon-2011-performer-results. I have to say as well that the 15 minute sports massage I had at the end of the race was very welcome if not incredible painful.