It was really warm on Saturday when we arrived in Ljubljana but the forecast looked pretty good for the race - nice and cool but warming up to around 13 degrees at lunchtime. With a 10:30 start and the clocks having changed to give extra time in bed it felt like a very leisurely start, especially as our hotel was just 10 minutes from the start line and bag drop. I had a bit of a sore throat on Saturday but it was worse on waking up on Sunday morning and I felt awful. I took some cold and flu tablets and headed to breakfast.
In order of the things I did wrong the biggest was definitely something that has been building over weeks rather than days. I've been busy; for me, stupidly busy. My left eye started twitching three weeks ago because I'm tired and had so much to do. I've not prioritised sleep and frankly, I've not prioritised myself; having busy weekends on top of busy weeks and just trying to keep everyone happy. At about mile 6 yesterday the biggest feeling I had was one of just being tired, and honestly not physically.
Having a cold come on at the start of a holiday is a pretty common thing; "as soon as you relax" but I have also seen so many people with colds recently that there was a sort of inevitability to this one. Immediately after the race though I felt a bit of a fraud because I didn't even have a cough. I feel sufficiently ill this morning (Monday) to know that it was undoubtedly a factor. My breathing going all over the place was the first sign things were going wrong and although I tried to get everything back under control it was too late to make a dent.
Just more a note for myself for future reference - I don't think I fuelled properly for this either. I didn't factor in the amount of time on the start line so the fact that it was more like 11am when we started and therefore I'd be running at my usual lunchtime - I definitely needed a bit more for breakfast and did I mention I lost the only gel I had with me (not a big believer in needing gels for a half but it would have been handy!)
Knowing things weren't right I should have just had a steady run and enjoyed it, I perhaps would have ended up with a similar result but enjoyed the process much more. Coulda, woulda, shoulda...
The positives though - this is a great race with a brilliant atmosphere. The support was great around most of the route, and although the half-marathon (polmaraton) doesn't go through the pretty old town so it wasn't as picturesque as I had anticipated, it was still a really nice route and great fun to be running overseas. With six from Bournville and about 130 Brits in total it was a different thing altogether and I sort of missed the camaraderie of running and looking out for club vests. I got chatting to one of the 30-strong group of Werrington Joggers just around the point when the wheels were coming off and was passed by Pete (on his way to an awesome time of around 3:31 in the full marathon) and later Rachel (as I desperately tried to get some energy drink from an overwhelmed drink station). There were bands all the way around the course, a brilliant drumming group at the start, and Colin Jackson starting the race.
The race was very good value for money - lots of reasonably priced merchandise to buy, plus a long-sleeved technical t-shirt, decent bag (to use for the bag drop and keep for afterwards) and medal.
Our six from Bournville all performed well on the day and although I was disappointed with my time, coming in just under 1:56, it was far from a disastrous race and some lessons were learned. Now, to enjoy the rest of my holiday and sample some beers!