Wednesday 27 May 2015

The half marathon experience

Running blogger, Sarah-Jane Perera, gives H&F her Vitality Run Hackney Half Marathon review

What does it feel like to pound the pavement of a cool East London borough for a couple of hours? Running blogger, Sarah-Jane Perera (www.poweredbycakes.com), gives us the lowdown of her Vitality Run Hackney Half Marathon experience...

"On Sunday May 10 the second Vitality Run Hackney Half Marathon took place. Following the inaugural race, I was glad to see the organisers take on board feedback from last year’s event and make this bigger and better than the first one. I was particularly pleased to see the improvement on the route and the added water stations. The big shiny medal and the technical t-shirt were the cherries on the cake."

"The event organisers moved the race forward by about 6 weeks, so I hoped we wouldn’t have to run in the scorching sun this year. When I set off from home, it was a cool and grey morning – perfect for running a half marathon. Much to my dismay, the sunshine came out as everyone filed into the pens at the starting line, and boy was I glad to have packed my sunglasses. It was exciting to see pro track and field athlete and local East London girl, Perri Shakes – Drayton start the race."

"I run with Run Dem Crew and Hackney is our stomping ground, so this is a very special race for me. It was great to run with different crew members along the way, and fun scanning the crowds for friends.  I was also looking forward to running past the Run Dem Crew cheer point at Mile 10."

"It’s a great route and joyous to run on closed roads, past some iconic Hackney sights including the Hackney Empire and through what is a surprisingly green borough of London.  The tempo changes coming through Olympic Park as the crowd thins out but there’s no doubting it still holds a special quality remembering Olympic glory achieved here."

"Prior to running the race I was a bit worried about being able to run it well, as I completed the Brighton Marathon – my first! - a month before. At around Mile 5, I was in a dark place, I felt really tired and began to walk. That’s when a lovely girl, Josie Arden, patted me on the back and encouraged me to keep running. Meeting Josie made me realise quite how small the running world is, not only did she know quite a few of the same bloggers and runners that I know, but she too had run the Brighton Marathon and was also finding the race quite hard.  We ran the rest of the course together, crossing the finish line hand in hand." 

"Although it was a tough race, I would do it all over again. One of my highlights was running past the Run Dem Crew cheer point. They went all out, with pots and pans, whistles and confetti cannons.  Vitality Run Hackney is a great local race, where the local community comes out to support the runners, offer us jelly babies and fruit and a whole load of encouragement."

"Pre-Registration for 2016 is now open. Sign me up!"

 

Article Health & Fitness May 27, 2015 via Featured Articles Read This...

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