So… we made it. Just! The Kent Coastal Half Marathon took place on a beautiful scenic route across the cliffs of Margate and Broadstairs in Kent, England. As beautiful as the scenery was, it was hard to enjoy it as the course was very tough indeed. Richard had done a half marathon previously in the coastal town of Folkstone not far from Margate and that had been a relatively flat affair. We were not so lucky with yesterday’s run. It was the inclines that killed us (and the other runners,) not the distance.
By mile three, Richard knew he was not going to be able to meet his target time, not by a long way and settled his mind just to focus on conserving energy and finishing the race. It was a linear run from A to B then back again so for every downhill segment we relished on the way out, in the back of our minds we knew we were only to fight it on the way back. At mile 5 or so a marshal was saying ”It’s all downhill from here!” to which Richard remarked to a runner next to me, “only until we come back!”
A word or two should be said for the scenery as it was very pretty. We ran mostly along the cliff side, by little bays with beach huts, through seaside towns with little kiosks, even past ruins and castles… but there was little respite for the runners. The weather was at least on our side with a cool (if somewhat strong) breeze and overcast keeping the sun out of our eyes. Richard wore his ‘Raising the Blues’ baseball cap, meanwhile, Laurynn stuck one of their stickers on her back. Running for a cause certainly helped and Richard challenged himself to keep running the whole distance, never to break into a walking motion, even if his pace was much the same anyway!
Laurynn had a whole different experience as this was her first half marathon. Whilst Richard had a frame of reference as to what was to come, and whilst he had done his best to give her some insight, there’s nothing quite like running a half marathon to make you realize quite how far 13.1 miles is on two feet. She was joined by a runner at mile 2 who like herself, trained on flat land. At this point they hadn’t even reached most of the big hills. At mile 10.5 she was joined by another runner who seemed as if she was experienced in half marathons and seemed discouraged that the hills got the best of her. Even though Laurynn didn’t meet her target time, she was still very pleased that she conquered this really difficult course and completed her first half marathon.
Richard also failed to meet his target time, by a fair way no less, but he was truly aghast how tough the course was and completing it was achievement enough. That said, he expect’s he’ll sign up soon for another, more forgiving course in the Boston area to make his target time soon. After five years of running, he’s leaving his shoes behind in England and will be buying a shiny new pair in Boston as he moves forward.
We are very happy to report also that we met our target for raising funds. We will continue to accept any further donations until we return on the 10th of September at which point we will send the money you have so generously donated over to Raising the Blues where it will help them to continue the great work they do for patients in Boston’s hospitals.
