I had never run as many kilometres as I did in preparation for the Cheshire Elite Marathon, which took place on the border between England and Wales. Even though I had improved my best marathon time to 2:32:15 just six months ago, I hoped to get as close as possible to that time on the rural course south of Chester. After a fast first half, various problems followed on the second half, so that I lost time and had to be satisfied with a finishing time of 2:35:48 hours in the end. Definitely not a bad time, but not what I could have done that day.

Natalie had a similar experience. She also started the race fast and had hoped to beat her half marathon best time by a few seconds. 21.1 kilometres later, the clock stopped for her after 1:22:02 hours and thus exactly one second after her existing best time. Some days you go "all in", you give it your all, but you can't completely show what you can do. That's sport. There are other days too.

Picture: Bryan Dale