Half the job...

Steve Monaghetti says if you are running a half marathon (21.1k) you are only doing half the job.

And he is right I suppose but it still a long way and a huge accomplishment for some. As a beginner runner 5k was a long way, then a 10km seemed to be the next goal. Stepping up to a half marathon and then the full marathon was never on my radar. But as my running friends wanted go further I went along with them.
After achieving a finish in the trail marathon (43k) in June, I have been cruising along with with middling distances. I watched the girls run in the half marathon at Run Melbourne recently as I didn't feel I was ready to run and didn't want to fork out another $110 for an event I was half hearted about.
Spectating and cheering/supporting is fine. Every now and then you need to take stock of what you want to achieve and train for and reset your goals.

So we entered the Sandy Point half marathon. The girls had had good results at Run Melbourne and were keen to improve their times. The prep was a bit haphazard as Running Buddy had a break at Port Douglas in the sun and Mel suffered with a virus that took 2 weeks to shake. The PB's were pushed out of mind and it was determined to be just a training run instead.

Terrible weather conditions greeted us in the morning and cold winds whipped across the Bay from Tasmania. Running into a vicious headwind made me seriously contemplate not finishing, I was only about 3k in when I had to bargain with myself to continue. I kept forward momentum with the rain whipping my face, head down until it was just as far to turn back as it was to keep running. I interspersed running with walking between showers wanting to get to the turn around so the wind would be at my back. An out and back course meant encouragement from the girls who were ahead of me and then waiting for me at the end. No more headwind but showers of hail spurred me to the finish.

I can hear the girls cheering me over the line

a welcome warm hug

Thanks Sandy Point for showing me I can do hard things.

And despite the tough conditions the girls both shaved times of their previous half marathon times to record PB's! I am very proud of them both.