I’m a rocker, I rock out. Well, technically not a rocker but certainly a runner. As Ben said, more eloquently than I could form words at this current moment, it was a legendary performance by all concerned and something everyone both could and should do, no matter the speed of performance. For the record I did the thing in Four hours, Twenty-three minutes and Seven seconds but that didn’t matter so much at the end, finishing was quite emotional. As the split times below may or may not show - analysis being a complex skill not suitable for my current state. But let the record show that I was feeling really, really good right up until about 21 miles whereupon it all came unstuck a little bit. For context that’s the fastest half marathon I’ve ever timed myself running and I felt that I was holding a lot back at that point. I’d been running with Charlie for most of the way, dropping back every 5k to get some bananas, salts or hot tea being as I can’t run and eat/drink at the same time. At the 35k mark I did that as usual and then attempted to push back to being in contact, all was going well until I reached about 200m behind him and found that closing that gap was a step too far. I stayed there for the next 3k or so until it became clear that if I didn’t slow down a bit continued existence would be a step too far. Cue dispiriting introspection and morbid personal examination. But limping out of a refreshment station and feeling very sorry for myself I was confronted by Ben’s sister, sisters boyfriend and mother - all cheering like heroes and generally throwing out the goodness. Well with that sort of support how could I not press on, efforts redoubled? Which I did and I must say, the second section in the city was great, running past The Duomo (twice), David and all sorts of lovelly Florentine streets, yes it hurt rather a lot but it was great. I was surprised by the finish when coming round the last corner as for some reason I’d got it into my head that there was rather longer left after 42k and suddenly the legs felt different, the red carpet felt good and I was sprinting it down as fast as I could (although I’m told it didn’t look that fast in reality). After it was over, it just felt like nothing for about 20 seconds, just tiredness until I walked through the gate and was handed my medal at which point I just wanted to cry. The stats are below but they don’t really tell the story at all, they can’t and shouldn’t in such an event. Whilst I was a mite disappointed in that I knew I can do better, I came in well under my target time for 4:30. I suppose it’s as good a time as any other to let you know that I’ll be running the London Marathon next April, favours and sponsorship will be called in.

Split 10� Km: Time: 0.59.06, min/Km: 5,54, Delta: 0.59.06, min/Km: 5,54, RealTime: 0.56.16 Split Mezza Maratona: Time: 2.04.05, min/Km: 5,52, Delta: 1.04.59, min/Km: 5,51, RealTime: 2.01.15 Split 30� Km: Time: 3.01.38, min/Km: 6,03, Delta: 0.57.33, min/Km: 6,27, RealTime: 2.58.48 Split 38� Km: Time: 3.54.02, min/Km: 6,09, Delta: 0.52.24, min/Km: 6,32, RealTime: 3.51.12 Finish: Generale, Km: 42, Time: 4.25.57, min/Km: 6,18, RealTime: 4.23.07