First 10k :-)

Having now been back in training properly for two months, I decided that it was time to up my game a little bit and take part in some events. One of the main benefits of being a member of a club is that you get to hear about what is happening locally, and try out some smaller scale runs. 

I'd seen on the club facebook page about the Rose Inn race - held once a month in the summer, over a distance of 4 miles. I thought that would be perfect - a distance that I would be able to manage, but far enough to be a challenge. However, no one mentioned just how competitive it would be, or how flat the course is meaning that it's fast. On starter's orders, everyone flew off like a speeding bullet, leaving me at the back with one other lady, which is where I stayed until the end. I completed it though, and in a faster speed than I had ever run before, proving that competition is good for you, whether you are fast or slow. It's also lovely that a large number of the competitors hang about to cheer on the last finishers, which is a really nice touch when struggling the final few metres. 


One of the main attractions of this event, is the free beer token which comes as part of the package - although in my haste to get the bar, I neglected my cool down stretches meaning sore quads for the next few days.

Feeling invincible after my Rose Inn encounter, I thought I might try a little further, and rocked up for a 10k at Pontypool Park last night. The event is part of the Gwent Leisure Centres League series, where local clubs compete against each other over various courses in the summer. I surprised myself by running the whole way - apart for a big mountain of a hill at 3 miles which I marched up, and I finished in 1 hour 6 minutes and 49 seconds. It was hard work at times; at around 5 and a half miles every muscle in my body was screaming at me to stop, but the sense of satisfaction on completing it was huge. The final part of the course is a lap of the stadium, where again the faster finishers wait to cheer on the slower competitors as they reach the end. One of the things I really enjoy about all of this is the camaraderie between runners; I think that most people appreciate that everyone else is trying their best, and the pace, finishing time or position really doesn't matter that much.

When I started running, 10k seemed like an impossibly far distance to complete, but now I can do it. I'm even enjoying it a little bit. As it's my birthday tomorrow, last night's run marked my last event as a senior lady; I officially become a veteran at midnight, which is all a bit much to take in. However, looking on the bright side, I am far fitter than I have been during the last ten years and I am doing things that I never thought I could.

Thank you for reading. 

 

Faster and Fitter

Just home from another fab training night with Lliswerry Runners. It was a track session tonight, and I downloaded the info from my Garmin, and was pleasantly surprised. I have been quite happily plodding along at 11 minute miles for the last couple of months - and it seemed to make no difference if I was going 200 metres, or 5 miles, I was always moving at the same speed.

However, tonight felt more comfortable. I still puff around the track like a cross between a giant marshmallow and a jellied eel, but I am not struggling to the point it hurts the whole time. And as the following information from my Garmin shows, I am actually getting faster:

It's strange how I haven't noticed that I am getting better, it has just crept up on me. The session tonight involved some intervals with short rests inbetween, but even so, I am moving my arse faster than ever before. Just goes to prove that, like most things, you need to put the effort in and stick with it.

This new healthy thing is also taking over the rest of my life. I expertly prepared my pot noodle tonight; one of the staple foods of any proper student diet. In fact, I eat them all the time. I thought it was horrible. Processed, artificial and it tasted revolting. I threw most of it in the bin and had an apple instead. I'm not quite sure what is happening to me.

The Dirty Weekend

Two years ago, as part of a crazy work challenge, I entered the Mudrunner Oblivion event at Eastnor Castle. This is a 10k cross country course, with lots of uphill sections, obstacles, and wading through mud, which is up to waist height in places. It took me three hours, and I hated every second of it, but having paid my entry fee, and with a dozen colleagues and assorted friends waiting for me at the end, I struggled on and vowed never to return again.

However, the pain of that day had faded, and needing a bigger challenge than the 5k parkrun, I signed up again this year. The event has grown since the intial event, and was now being held on two days and has been named the Dirty Weekend, with camping within the grounds of the castle overnight. I opted for the Saturday event on the basis that I would be able to enjoy a cider or two afterwards, and watch my more ambitious mates complete the course on Sunday. 

Saturday afternoon was bright and warm, and I was actually quite excited driving to the venue. However, this excitement quickly turned to blind panic on seeing the hill at the start of the course. I have not done any proper hill training since November, and ended up strolling up the hill with all the other people who had opted to start the race in the slow wave. Still, it was very scenic, and at least I had time to enjoy the view.

The course then progressed through deep tracks of mud, which is so gloopy that it rips your trainers off your feet, and a variety of obstacles - fences to climb over, monkey bars (which if I'm honest I took one look at, then chose the alternative crawl under a cargo net), a spiders web of ropes, a quick dip in the lake, and then a mountainous slope of solid mud where you need to pull yourself up on a rope:

 

This is me a few seconds before I fell flat on my face, and was left dangling on the rope, before some random man took pity on me, and hauled me very inelegantly over the ridge at the top of the slope by my arms.  The final obstacle is another longer dip in the lake, before an uphill jog to the finish line.

This is me and my friend Vicky at the end, very glad to have finished the course. I was not particularly fast, but I didn't come last either. However, unlike last time, I absolutely loved taking part. I am now suffering from the type of pain which is agonising but strangely satisfying at the same time - I started today on a care of the elderly placement as part of my course, and struggled to keep up with the chair based exercise class aimed at my 90 year old patients, as my legs will barely move, but it is all worth it.

For the past month, I have been on a acute respiratory placement, including working with patients in intensive care. I think this has made me realise just how fragile life is, and how much I take my good health for granted. None of us know what might happen tomorrow, and from now on, I fully intend to make the best of the opportunities that I have. Some challenges are not meant to be easy, but that makes their completion all the more satisfying.