Beside the seaside

My legs ache, my irritation levels are sky-high and my shoulders (which is unexpected) are very stiff. Oh yes, I ran a half-marathon yesterday! 13.1 hilly miles in the south coast town of Hastings in a respectable time of 1 hour 56 minutes.
It's all in the expectations. This time is way off my personal best, but comfortably under 2 hours. I made a decision a month or so ago that I wasn't in a place where I could put running top of my agenda, train at a high mileage and put in some killer speed sessions. It's not the hours in my trainers that is the cost, but the days of recovery and tiredness that come with getting fitter. So, without a tough goal to achieve, I enjoyed the run, accepted that this was as fast as I could go, and had a great time; the weather could not have been more beautiful; there were professional pacers and I could just keep the 9-minute-miling guy in my sights on the relentless hill from two-and-a-half to five miles, dragging me up; the congregations of the churches we passed on route were cheering us along and one even had their worship band out, lifting my head and my spirits and I was positively enjoying myself by the time I reached final three mile stretch along the sea-front. It was just a shame I didn't have time to stop for an ice-cream!