Brass Monkey 2012

Today was the 30th Brass Monkey Half Marathon, this was to be my 100 th race since I started running just over 5 years ago. Last time I did this race (2010) I prepped for it, carbing and tapering then just before 8 miles I hit a pothole badly and sprained my ankle. I ran through the pain and shocked myself by completing it in 2:02:42 but could not run properly for a month. This year I have run everyday this month, plus done extra training for Outlaw Triathlon am not sleeping well, due to Mum being ill and my nutrition is pretty hit and miss. So I decided to treat it as a training run. I got up this morning and its blowing a howler. York is flat and the course is open, Challenging. The wind was blowing hard in our faces and into our sides for the majority of the race and being big meant there was not much opportunity to hide behind others. The wind was so strong it was blowing me sideways at times. My plan was to do 3 miles steady, 3 miles hard, 3 miles steady , 4 miles hard. I stuck with it and was pleasantly surprised to finish in 2:02:35. A course best by 7 seconds. There were quite a few Ripon Runners racing and all seemed to have good races despite the weather. Special mention goes to Caroline who came to support us and walked 3 miles along the course to cheer us on, then walked back to cheer us to the finish. Also Vicky my running and racing partner who has had a fantastic year with pb after pb. To day she did sub 2hr for the first time. Annette and Sherrie are both quite new to Ripon Runners and they completed their first ever Half Marathon in 2:9 and 2:5 respectively.