Be afraid...

Cue  O Fortuna ... yes it's nearly here... I'm talking about (in the Big Brother announcer voice) THE TOUGH TEN!  This Saturday at 10am.  You may recall my now legendary description of the horrors I suffered in this race last year. I even had nightmares about it BEFORE I ran it. ''It will be fine" they said.  ''You'll be fine'' they said.  It wasn't and I wasn't.  Somehow everything conspired to go disastrously wrong.  I hadn't trained enough for it, I wasn't properly prepared, it was a roastingly hot day and I went off too fast.  In fact today I was just reflecting on the fact that good races don't teach you anything.  If you have a good race and get a great time then you feel fantastic.  But usually you don't know why you did so well.  Last week I did a brilliant parkrun and got my fastest 5k time ever at 27.12.  It was awesome but I've no idea how I did it and I'm not sure I could repeat it let alone better it. On the other hand I have two bad races under my belt and I have learnt so much from both of them. I know now that I need to start steady even if it means being last, I know that I perform poorly in the heat and I need to make allowances for that. I know that I need to take on fluid and nutrition on 10+ mile runs. I know that nobody else expects as much of me as I do of myself and that sometimes I will have a bad run and that's all there is to it.  I also know that I will finish a race no matter what  and that taking part at all is still a source of great pride to me as I remember where I've come from.  And here endeth the lesson according to St Leggy.

On to more good news.  I ran with my friend S and did 18 miles of a 3 min run/ 1 min walk strategy and it was brilliant.  The fact that I could do that, although I hadn't run more than 13 miles in one go since the marathon, was a huge boost to me. Nearly crippled my feet though and I have a residual niggle in my left heel even now.  In fact today I was marmalised by Mick and I gave an impressive range of gargoyle impersonations as he found out exactly where my aches and pains were.  One moment I was chatting away brightly and the next minute I was completely silent and doing my best to deep breathe and not shriek in a dogwhistle manner.  I will now be taking it very easy ahead of the race.  I'd like to do it justice and of course I have unfinished business with this course. Nevertheless what it doesn't realise is that I completed the Ferriby 10 in January in howling wintry conditions.  Plus did a marathon, plus ran double laps of the Croxby course twice, plus have done the Six Peaks of Caistor on a number of occasions.

So do your worst my friend - I am a very different beast this time around!

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Two crawls and a creep

Yes I'm back on the blog and it's been a long long time.  I have been running though, have no fear! I got slightly sidetracked a couple of months ago due to an unexpected item in the bagging area - to whit - a naked man on one of our races.  Yes you are as surprised as I was.  Basically I was running the two lap version of a very hilly local race when I and a friend happened upon, what turned out to be, a weirdo.  A bit of discussion later and it seemed that he had done this quite a few times round the course as he targeted women on their own.  It really is quite unbelievable!  There were at least a hundred people on the race and it is an extremely tough and very remote route.  So that was all a bit disconcerting and it certainly stopped me running on my own for a while.  A few weeks later I did the race again and it certainly preyed on my mind throughout.  Fortunately he has now been arrested and charged so no need to worry quite so much now but it's amazing how vulnerable you can be made to feel.

Moving on in to July and our Sting in the Tail 10k.  It went very well this year and I got my best time yet so I was chuffed.  Though it is a challenging race I managed to stay in control throughout this time round.  I still can't imagine doing it in less than an hour though.

Recently I have a very good spell in the running stakes.  I can run faster and for longer at that pace so that's a bonus.  I did another local 5 mile race and managed to knock 5 mins off my time last year! Then at the club we did a time trial and I estimated my finish time to within 20 seconds.   Oh yes! Plus I got a PB at our local parkrun so fingers crossed  long may it continue.

For the past two weeks I have been on holiday in Cromer, Norfolk.  It has been fantastic! Nonstop sunshine.  I can't remember the last time I had such a great holiday in the UK.  All this despite sleeping in a tent with my 13 year old son. I was quadruple-bagged - a silk bag inside a sleeping bag inside a tent inside an awning.  Hah! For some reason I was awake ridiculously early every day.  Why?  Who gets up earlier on their holidays than they do normally?  No-one that's who! And yet there I was at 5.30am and 6am wide awake. So on two occasions I went for a run.  Once I went on a 7 mile run and ran from the campsite down to the coast and all along the seafront and round the town and back.  It was glorious.  So peaceful and quiet and the sea looked so blue and calm. The added bonus is that two of my sisters are running now too.  In fact we all ran at Sheringham Parkrun which was brilliant although I'm a bit amazed that the parkrun in Norfolk is hillier than the one here.  What are the chances of that? I can't escape the hills!