Iona Finds Spring in Her Step in the Kingston Half

Iona Cousland reports:After the Beast from the East saw the Bath half marathon at the start of March cancelled, the Kingston half on Easter Sunday was the next best thing. I certainly wasn’t the only one entering at the last minute to make up for missing other races cancelled because of the unseasonal cold snap.  I had a pretty brutal 5.30am wake up to make the 13 mile trek from Finsbury Park to Kingston (a new half marathon route possibly?) in time for the 8.30am start, and I was unsure of what to expect. After missing training sessions at Battersea because of my new North London post code and snow and icy conditions making training not quite a walk in the park I wasn’t feeling too confident. Looking on the bright side though it wasn’t raining; this had to be a good omen. I thought if I could manage 7 minute miles I’d be doing ok. My first few miles clocked in at under 6.30 and I was leading the race for the women (I think). It wasn’t until mile 6 that I started to feel it in my legs. The nice flat course along the river helped spur me on, as did the sight of Hampton Court Palace, where I was starting to feel the burn and where two female runners raced past me. However, I thought if I could keep this up, I’d still smash by PB of 1:28, plus I was still ahead of a lot of the men. One of my race highlights was just after this point a little boy shouting ‘Go, girl!’, when I ran past in amongst a group of male runners. Hats off to him (and his mum)!The last few miles were pretty painful but I managed to push through, propelled by the thought of all the delights of Easter Sunday that awaited me after the finish line. Even though I slowed a bit towards the end, I was very happy with my PB of 1:26:23, 3rd woman spot and 44th finish overall, all of which stands me in good stead for when I take on New York with Belgravian expat Becky O'Kill!