The Inverness Half Marathon is always one of the first events on my calendar, and it so often feels like spring is really here (on the years it doesn’t snow, at least) once it is done. That was the case today as the sun shone in the late afternoon, despite a heavy downpour that wasn’t forecast during the race.
This is the 12th year I’ve taken part, a couple of trips up from Glasgow in 2004 and 2005 then every year since 2008 while I’ve been living in Inverness. It was that run in 2005 when I last got a personal best – and my friend took a photo of me looking pale and ghostly after achieving it!
Since then I haven’t managed to get a PB at any distance – probably because I used to regularly train with the Bellahouston Road Runners when I lived in Glasgow but didn’t join a club up here initially – but today I took 44 seconds off that 2005 time, finishing in 1hr 34mins 37secs, so I’m pretty pleased with that!
It was hard work achieving it today, though. I put in some much faster miles than I had been anticipating and did my best to keep the speed up for the duration of the 13.1 miles, only really slowing in the last mile when I knew I just had to keep going.
My eldest daughter Clara (5) also took part – but in the 5k, running with her 71-year-old grandad. She was delighted to get her third 5k medal and spend the day with her grandad!
