Silver Lining

Oops, I did it again

Hmmm... remember how boring running is?  Hmmmm....  Clickety click.

On the upside, I know running won't hurt my neck - and I've invested in new shoes to make sure of it.  The neurologist was happy for me to run, and I'll be seeing him in a couple of weeks to check.  I've done a couple of runs in my new shoes - happily managed a mile and a half this evening. 

So, I'm not looking to raise a fortune this time.  Just a little bit of money, please.  It's Comic Relief this time, and you know you'll end up giving to it anyway, so you might as well do it by sponsoring me!

First day back at work-itis.  If it isn't an officially recognised syndrome, it should be.  Our office is air conditioned, and it takes about 3 weeks to acclimatise to the recycled stuffiness and stop yawning.  And about 5 minutes to un-acclimatise again.  Hence, this week I will mostly be wrestling with consciousness.

Yesterday evening J and I decided to shuck off the post-office gloom by going for a run.  We set off from Newbold Comyn carpark, in light drizzly rain.  I normally do an anti-clockwise circuit of Newbold Comyn, but thought that I'd remembered an old network route well enough to reverse it.  The recycled air had obviously addled my brain.  We branched off to the right, across country, hurdling more nettles than I remembered from the opposite direction.  As we eventually circled left around the end of the brackish end of river that must have been well screened by bushes the time I ran the other way round, we came onto a paved pathway, bordered by houses.  It did not compute.  It did not compute even more when a car zoomed past us, and then another but travelling in the opposite direction.  We'd come to a road!  There *aren't* any roads on Newbold Comyn!

The realisation dawned that we (I) had taken a wrong turning just as the rain became more severe.  Oh well, we (I) thought, if we just keep going, we'll come to the top of the park and just ran back in.

Somewhere around where the top of the park should have been, we ran past a sign.  We (I) dimly made out through the near vertical waterfall descending from the heavens that it read 'Radford Semele'.  We (not just I) were running *away* from Leamington.  Someone had turned the road round; faced it in the wrong direction entirely.

Fortunately we (I) remembered that the canal would take us back into town.  We (J) spotted a canal bridge on the near horizon, and slid delicately down the slippery mudbank to the towpath.  Fortunately, we (J) chose the correct direction back into town, and a mere 3km later we arrived at the blue footbridge into Jephson Gardens.

On the way back to Jephson Gardens, we encountered several baby fowl, all swimmingly happily along.  Which was, in fact, the best mode of transport for the prevalent weather conditions.

In my very best running knickers *and* running shoes, I ran 3.82km, or 4254 steps at 8.6km/h, in 26.22 minutes.  All of which is wrong, since I was running on a 400m track, and at the end of one lap, my pedometer read 0.42km.  I must find the instructions, and recalibrate it...

2.3km, 2565 steps (in shoes), 8.7km/h (in knickers) 15:44 minutes.

hard work, and not very far.  Well, from a low base we can only go up....

Some of you may have noticed that it's been a whiel since i went running. I've been waiting for Manchester conditions to be replicated.

So tonight it's pouring down, and I've run a mile in 11 1/2 minutes.  It hurt.  It's going to be a long while till I'm as fit as I was 6 months ago...

Move along, now.  Nothing to see here.

It's official

I can't do it any more.  A mile and a half, tonight.  First I got stitch then, when I'd walked that off, I kept crying.  You can't run and cry.  It fucks with your breathing.  Only, mostly I wasn't tearing, just sobbing. Very disconcerting - poor Phoenix!

So, a mile and a half. 

Try again tomorrow...

Motivate me, interweb.

Well, if you insist on maintaining your running schedule in the face of overwhelming stress and confusion, I guess you really should eat.  Today I've eaten a slice of toast, a banana (my shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S) and two jaffa cakes.  So at 3/4 mile, my legs refused to work any more.

*sigh*

Try again tomorrow.  After porridge.

5.12 km, 30:02 minutes, which I think is roughly 10km/h, isn't it?  Timed on the heartrate monitor stopwatch, distance measured in the car.  We thought it was fast.  We did walk for a minute or so.

Lessons I learnt so you don't have to: the energy you send out really does come back to you.  I went running to burn off some anger.  I came home with a damaged ankle. 

So how come I can run that fast today, when all I could manage on Sunday was a lousy lot less (I wish I was numerate!)

Hot girl on girl action

Phoenix and I went to Styal today, to (finally!) break in my new track shoes, and - so we thought - her new lightweight waterproof.

In the event, the sun stayed out.  We ran for 13 minutes (a complete circuit of the country park) which I reckon must be close to 2 miles, only.  But we ran flat out - obviously as the pedometer is stuffed I have no idea *how* fast, but it felt at least as fast as the runs that registered 9.2km/h.

The thing about Styal, is that being a National Trust property, you have to get in and out past a gate keeper.  So we rolled in at about 1.30, flashed the membership card.  Phoenix stripped off her tracksuit and I gathered up the dog, and off we went.  Call it 20 minutes later, to allow for changing, gossiping pre- and post-run, and we're back through the gate again, in the opposite direction.  Only now we're flushed, hot and sweaty and one of us is minus a layer of clothing. 

Let's hope he was a broad-minded gatekeeper!

Blimey! I'm knackered!

Well, I ran 1.09.38 I think.  The official times for individuals will be up on the greatrun website in the next couple of days, so it's still a bit approximate.

I'm a bit disappointed not to have done it under the hour.  But it turns out my pedometer *did* need recalibrating; according to it, I ran 11km today, not 10.  So in training I've run (according to the pedometer) 10km at 1.05.something, and today I've done an extra km in 4 more minutes - so the net result is that I *did* shave a little bit off my best training time.  Still, I'd have preferred under the hour.

AndyRitchiesHairline, who ran the race with me, did rather better at 1 hour and 2 minutes.  It was his second year of this race, and I'm definitely going to whoop his ass next year!!

When I got home and showed the children my medal, Daisy got really excited and ran round the cul de sac shouting "Mummy won!  Mummy won!"  (Heile Gebrselassie actually won.  In 27 minutes.  Fastest woman was 31 minutes.  A friend of mine ran 42 minutes, which isn't half bad!)

And then this afternoon I've had a lovely barbecue to say goodbye to some friends here in Manchester.  I think at the height we had 15 adults, 4 teenagers and 14 children aged 6 and under.  A wild time was had by all!  No wonder I'm knackered.

Moo has been a total star today - the very best advert for how heavenly teenagers should be.  Not only did she mind the little people at home while I was running, she organised them to make me a big congratulations banner which was hung in the dining room when I got back.  And then, while I was sitting chatting with the hardcore barbecuers this evening, she totally cleared up, washed up and put away all the food related mess.  What a sweetheart!

Now small people are in the bath, having run wild with their favourite friends all day, and I'm sure they'll fall straight to sleep, despite copious quantities of barbecue'd banana, marshmallow and crumbled chocolate (yum, yum, yummety yum)!  And I'm off to put my weary legs up for the evening.  Spect I won't be long to bed myself, actually.

Thank you all for your good wishes and support - it's been a really memorable day!

[update: Monday 23 May, 08:06am]

The official results are up!  I did 01:09:50 - and came 13,140th!!  Absolutely killing myself laughing at the position!
ARH did 01:02:28 and came 10,270th - which gives you a fair indication of how cram packed full the course was...