I had never done any long distance before. In the entire year we did cross country at school I only participated twice, as I was a fat piece of shite, and either made an elaborate excuse or just didn’t turn up. I still don’t particularly enjoy running, but the Hackney Half is a lot of fun.
The course itself is great, and takes you around the best, greenest, and liveliest streets of Hackney, not the dingy, grimy grey areas, and when I ran last year near all of Hackney residents lined the streets to cheer everyone on, and for sure it helps you keep going.
Massively beneficial to me is the start/ finish line on Hackney Marshes being ten minutes from my house, but Virgin Sport put on a really fantastic event with exercise classes, climbing walls, DJs, really great food and drink trucks, and osteopaths for the runners (or the lazy ones) to help recover after the race. Even if you don’t fancy running it’s a really great day out to attend.
As for my participation this year I have two goals.
My time last year was 1:34:27, which I thought was pretty good for my first ever, and considering I’d spent the week before in Valencia drinking sangria and eating nothing but croquettes, but my older brother recently completed a half at 1:29:04 so obviously I have to beat that.
Secondly I’m raising money along with some friends. I lost my mum in December due to a very, very brief battle with cancer and I’ll also lose my step-dad to it around the end of this year. One of my closest friend’s dad is also terminal, and another lost his mum early this year. So to honour them, we’re collecting for three charities that were/ are very close to their hearts.
It’ll also really help whip some of my friends into shape.
So the donation page is here, and any donation would be most welcome.
But regardless attend or run and have fun.
More importantly, tell those you need to that you love them.
#harrisonthehand