Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon - 13.1 miles / 21.08 km, 1 hr 46'43''

My first ever Royal Parks Half Marathon could not have been better. A beautiful sunny but cool day, lots of enthusiastic supporters along the route and a new personal best combined to make it a hugely enjoyable experience.

Chris and I arrived at Hyde Park bright and early, along with a chunk of the other 15,000 runners. I headed off to the start area and he went to Buckingham Palace to find a good place to watch out for me. The start area had a large marquee for the charities, and I dropped my bag off at the Amnesty International area and said hello to Ben and Daisy from Team Amnesty, who have been the principal organisers of my place in the run. After that I headed for the blue starting funnel, which was the specific area for my predicted time.

As the race began, I was just behind the 1.55 pace runner. I was aiming to do below 1.55 so I overtook him fairly rapidly. The first few miles were crowded, with lots of overtaking and (polite) jostling. The early morning sunshine was bright and there was a light breeze to keep me cool. I saw a few well-dressed charity runners in these early stages - a man dressed as a bottle of London Pride beer, a woman in a tiger onesie and even a man in a squirrel outfit, complete with bushy tail, running to raise money for the Royal Parks Foundation.
The first half of the race felt very good. I knew I was going at a faster pace than in my previous half marathons and my legs felt strong with no aches or pains. There were so many friendly people cheering at the sidelines - as I had my name on my vest, lots of people kept calling out my name which really helped to keep me motivated.

I realised as time progressed that I was tiring, but I wanted to keep the pace going.  The latter half of the race was harder than the first, and my splits were slower too.  However, as I neared the end I knew that I would be setting a new personal best and was hoping that I would be able to get home in under 1 hour 50.  I need not have worried, as I crossed the finish line in 1.46:43, well below my target time, 9 minutes faster than my previous personal best and a full 15 minutes faster than the time I ran in Porto only a month ago.  I got my lovely oak leaf medal and had a wander around the stalls at the food and fitness fair, enjoying the late autumn sunshine in one of London's loveliest parks.  The perfect end to a perfect run!