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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