The time I wished the ground would swallow me whole while running my first half marathon

 

The time I wished the ground would swallow me whole while running my first half marathon 

Have you ever been on a high? Have you ever nailed the presentation? Or got top marks in class? Our got complemented on your outfit by a stranger on the street? Can you remember the feeling I'm talking about? Running the Waterside marathon I had that feeling of glee and adrenaline the whole way around. It was only when the adrenaline started to wear off, I realised what I had said and I wanted the ground to swallow me whole. 

Let's backtrack a little to before the run, I was a nervous wreck I had no appetite I was so nervous of failure, and I was so nervous I would disappoint myself. It was supposed to be a scorching day which would have made the run even harder, but I put all these feelings to the back of my mind and made my way to the starting line. I was never so delighted to see a cloudy dull morning as I knew this meant It would make my run a little bit easier. 

The atmosphere was electric, there was thousands of participants! Some were training to run a full marathon in November, some were trying to beat their personal best, I was trying to finish the race without medical intervention!  

We set off and I was going too fast, I knew I was, but I couldn’t slow down there was something pushing me to go harder than I would have normally on a run. But as the seas calmed and I trudged past the the most grueling part of the route, i knew there was a possibility I could finish this thing.  

Now here’s something you need to know about Derry, the community as a whole are in a class of their own, you will never meet such kind generous down to earth people who would be willing to give you the shirts off their backs if they thought you needed it. So, dotted along the route was the people of Derry heading out water and sweets, standing out holding handmade signs and shouting ‘there's a downhill part coming now in a wee minute’ which was total lies, but it gave us hope. So in the final miles, down to the wire, a group of generous Derry people positioned themselves along the side of the road holding out bottles of water and small plastic serving tubs, the kind you’d see come out with a bottle of medicine for runners to grab as they ran past as to shave off crucial seconds to their time.  

I can’t fathom why this notion come into my head maybe it was dehydration, maybe it was complete exhaustion but once I seen those little clear cups I made a B line for the gentleman handing them out. ‘What’s in those?’ I queried, near expecting to hear a response like Tequilla Rosé or Micky Finns but the fella could’ve knocked me for 6 when he said ‘jelly beans’ and my face doesn’t lie, I was devastated. I was convinced that there would be shots in the shot glasses being handed out at the end of the race to congratulate us on a job well done. ‘What’s wrong?’ the man pulled me out of my disappointed thoughts by asking if I was okay, and I had to confess, ‘awh, I thought they were shots.’ I replied and set off on my way to finish the last mile of the race. As the distance between me and the unfortunate event grew, I began to hear and eruption of laughter as the man recounted the interaction and the pit in my belly began to grow. I was mortified! Of course there wasn’t alcohol at an official race. I wish the ground would have swallowed me whole! 

So, the moral of this story is, people of Ireland and farther afield if you wish, should you decide to run in next year's Waterside half marathon, I will be there at the finish line with a BIG tray of shots.