Get ready for an essay, Simon! Firstly, thank you so much. It’s amazing to see all the training paying off, and I’m so proud to have achieved a PB! That said, I think it was one of the hardest races I’ve ever done. I found Queensway really tough—the 2-hour pacer was right near me, and I could feel people constantly running past, which got into my head a bit. At one point, I genuinely thought I might not even break 2 hours. When I finally pulled away from the pacer, I was hit with a really painful stitch (probably too many jelly babies!) that lasted from the ridge all the way to the seafront. I almost gave up on my target pace because of it—but I had this little voice in my head telling me to keep pushing, and somehow I did. Also, whenever I slowed to a walk, other runners were so kind and encouraging, which made a huge difference ❤️ Around the 10-mile mark, I checked my time and realised I might be on for about 1:55, which really motivated me to keep going. By the time I reached the seafront, the stitch had eased, but then the heat and exhaustion kicked in. Still, that same voice kept saying, “keep going, keep going.” I stopped looking at my watch and focused on maintaining my pace. Before I knew it, I was overtaking people and actually speeding up—800m to go, then 600m, then 400m. On the final stretch, I saw the clock and felt so happy. I’m really proud that I kept pushing through to the end! And of course, I celebrated afterwards with pizza and a beer 🍻