My alarm went at 05:15 and I took my time getting up. As I had breakfast I watched the sunrise, and thought not just about last night but the day ahead. The forecast looked promising for the race, but hopefully it wouldn’t then prove to be too warm.

Eventually, it was time to make my way to the race start. It was a very short walk from where I was, and I once again bumped into Jonathan and Liz, and then eventually Carmen once I’d been to the loo. Race loos are never nice, but these were disgusting though - they’d clearly not been cleaned since the race yesterday, and were now overflowing and wouldn’t flush. I should have used the public ones by the marina like yesterday - they’d have been much better.

I wished Carmen luck, and she went with Jonathan to the block 2 starting location as I made my way to block 1. Just as I was joining block 1, the second block started moving forward so I never really got into the right place. The wheelchair competitors set off first, and then the rest of us shortly after. The first bit was through the remainder of Molos Park, which I’ve run along previously, but then when leaving there I’d expected the route to carry on east, towards Amathus, but instead it turned back towards the roundabout near the marina, and only after going around that roundabout did it then start heading to Amathus as expected.

It was nice getting to see the runners behind me sooner than expected, I kept an eye out for Jonathan’s pacing flag so I could try to spot Carmen, but sadly I didn’t see either. By the time I’d done two miles, I’d only just past the end of Molos Park so I realised that this race wouldn’t quite make it as far as Amathus this year, for whatever reason. These first two miles were slower than I’d done during the entire half marathon in 2019 and 2020, but in my head I was thinking the first half would be mostly uphill and the second half downhill. It’d been over a year since I’d been here running it, but I’d got a vague recollection of what the area was like.

By the time I’d done 5K I was a little over 20 minutes into the race, and so far everywhere was familiar from the last few days. For the most part it didn’t feel too bad, yet, but there was very little shade from the sun, and I felt it was getting warmer. At the first water station I took a bottle of water, unscrewed it as I ran, and after a swim of water I poured some of the rest over my head, finding that the visor kept some of it in place.

As I got to 5 miles, I was already starting to tire, but I felt if I could get another mile done, get to that turnaround point, things would get easier. I did some maths in my head and realised the turnaround point was now likely to be somewhere around 7 miles so that we wouldn’t redo the the western bit we’d done at the start. As the route started to reach the only really noticeable climb of the course I found this was it. I needed to walk, and hadn’t quite made it to 10K. I’d wanted to keep running for at least half of it, but I’d not quite managed that and found myself walking a few more times before I’d even turned around. This point is actually in a bit of a dip after the peak of the climb which means not long after turning around I had to climb it again, and walked some more.

When the 1:30 pacer passed me I decided I’d force myself to run until I could see the 2:00 pacer on the other side of the road. I saw Jonathan and Carmen after about a mile, and waved at them and cheered Carmen on. She was sticking to the pacer, and if she could keep it up then she stood a strong chance of getting a PB, and maybe even the elusive sub-2:00 she’d been after for a few years. I really hoped she could do it.

After that my race switched to frequent walking breaks, and I never got to use any of my race fuel as I felt it was now too late. I’d already burnt out quicker than I’d anticipated in the first half, and now I’d just be happy to finish. It was around this time that I saw an ambulance speed past, and a few minutes later I saw them collecting a runner who had collapsed on the road. I was happy to not be pushing myself that hard - whatever time I got now, I’d be happy with. To a degree. From 10 miles onwards I was now walking more and more frequently, and the chance of even getting a sub-90 was long out the window.

When I saw the trilogy towers I knew that I didn’t have far to go now and that motivated me to get running more. I saw Gary, but he was watching the other side of the road, so I called his name and waved as I passed. As I approached Molos Park the half marathon runners had to keep left, and this went onto the boards I’d run on before. 500 metres to go. I could see the gantry ahead so I started to speed up, but then realised that was not the finishing one, so I slowed down again briefly, but then pushed harder and harder until I was up to a sprinting pace to cross the finish line. I finished in 94:20, a very slow time for me, but was 80th out of 1,400 finishers for this race.

I waited for Jonathan and Carmen at the finish, and saw Carmen first. If she was ahead of Jonathan that must mean she'd smashed her goal. I cheered her on, and then saw them both after the race. She'd PB'd by a big chunk and had gotten her first sub-2:00 half marathon time. I was so happy for her! I know what it's like to have a half marathon goal looming over you for a number of years before finally smashing past it.

The remainder of the day was spent relaxing, and eating plenty of food until it was time to start packing for my eventual journey home.