JudI Temple wishes to announce her retirement from running!

Today I felt scared, really scared. In fact fear is one of the many emotions that could have been ascribed to me this morning. I would add to the mix; anger (with myself for not having trained enough) disappointment (see above) grief (for my lovely Dad) nostalgia (for my first race for life with friend & ex running partner Sarah) and an impending sense of failure. I had been out to run once in the last 2 weeks and managed 12 minutes before collapsing into a soggy heap. (That was the day after hospital experience from hell with baby boy.) I knew that I would need to run probably in excess of 35 minutes today, and it was hot too!

There was much pitiful blubbing, a simple 'Good Luck' from one of the marshals set me off and standing amidst 3,000 on my own, reading everyones messages and tributes ensured that I wept through the first 1.5K.

It was a tough!
Too much weight, too little training, blazing sun, low self belief and very little sleep = a long hard 5K
I can honestly say that without my family there, appearing on the sidelines, waving smiling and running alongside (Ben) I wouldn't have run every step. They kept me going. The worst point came when I felt that I was in the last k and could probably manage to dig deep & keep going; I hadn't seen the 4K marker but I didn't mind too much as I'd missed the 2k marker too. Then, in the distance, I saw it. The 4K marker!!! At that point I felt tears prickle again and really began to doubt that I could continue running. The devil on my shoulder helpfully told me that I still had more than a fifth of the distance to go. This coupled with the uphill stretch almost broke my will but for Dad and my children and the woman I want to be I ran on.

When I saw Guy, Arden, Ben & Teddy appear once again on my left I looked at Guy and stated simply 'I can't do it' he just grinned and pointed 'you're almost there' and in something less than 35 minutes I fell across the finish line.

I can't begin to explain the sense of achievement for having pushed and found something deep inside to carry on. I asked Guy if he thought I'd do it knowing I'd get the truth and he simply said 'Yes. Physically you'd done just enough training to get through it and mentally you're hard as nails, when it matters'

Dragon slain - Number 24 ticked-self belief rocketing....Now, someone pass me a bike!