September 2008 Archives

I think I have a Lucozade problem

After running the Robin Hood Half last weekend, I figured that the Run for Life 10K at Wentworth Castle was going to be an absolute blast and so much fun!

And it was. In a sadistic - masochistic kind of way.  If you enjoy running up a 1km hill and back down and repeating it 5 times without end, then this race is definitely for you.  There are no flats.  The race organisers have probably never seen a flat piece of ground in their life.  And they weren't about to allow anyone else to run on the unknown.

We started on a downhill - that sounds like fun.  Then we hit the first hill and the thought that was goes down must come up came to mind.  Then the next downhill hit and my legs were a little confused because of the lack of any rest area, but they held up and pretty soon we were going back up.  By the third km my legs just decided that they were going to force me to rest.

I took a small walk and tried to run again.  I now had 2 bricks where my calves used to be and pretty soon I was just doing the walking thing again.  From there I pretty much ran the downhills and power-walked up the hills. 

NEVER before in my life have I run a 10K where 90% of the field were walking by the 5km mark.  And EVERYONE was walking up, running down, walking up, running down. 

The course was hard, the heat was killing the will to live and the 1 single and lonely water station at the 5km mark probably ran out of water long before the last runner(walker) came past it.

Thankfully the last km was all downhill and I'm sure a lot of people were incredibly thankful for it.

Despite the moaning in this post, I did enjoy it (maybe not at the time, but on re-collection) and I'll probably enter it again next year (if it is run) and attempt to break my time (I'm not even going to mention what it was) so that I can prove that even I can run a hill :)

Can you see it?

No?

That officially makes me 2 minutes faster than Paula Radcliffe.

Okay, so its a typo, but a girl can dream, can't she?

Running in the rain is fun - but last night we thankfully didn't have any rain around.  Peg-leg joined me on a 3.5 mile run around the neighbourhood and we headed into the reserve close to us (its not big, but you can do a mile loop under trees) to slip and slide in the dark - forgot that at some point in the year it becomes dark earlier than we'd like it to.

Afterwards we got home and struggled with the television downstairs to get it upstairs to hook it up to the sky box - our normal tele had to go in for a fix as it now acts like a big radio with no pictures.  Thankfully it lasted through the Olympics.  Once upstairs we got it working and in no time at all we were perfectly happy with the fact that we could watch the US Open Men's Singles Final.

I got tired after the first set and crawled into bed - peg joined me an hour later.

I woke up to a pretty new blog!  The front end works again - thanks to Jeff (thanks Jeff!) and now I can happily post again!

Ouch.  Today I had the most painful 10K I have ever had.  In my whole entire life.

We got to Sheffield in good time and I found my zone pretty easily.  Someone decided that the competitors had to do a warm-up together - I thought I'd join in the fun :)  I was laughing and chatting to the girl next to me who was really excited to be running this 10K as she did her first 10K ever at this race last year.  She seemed absolutely great!

So the time comes for us to start and I'm off!  Well, it was a downhill and I just let myself go and I'm starting to think this might be the reason why, after 1km into the race, I felt like I was going to kill someone because both my lower legs were cramping like there was no tomorrow.  I thought I'd try running on... but at 2km I was ready to throw the towel in, but thankfully there were no medical people around, so on I shuffled for a moment... and then decided to walk.  I really didn't feel like walking or running at this point, but I was on my way and I didn't feel like turning around after having woken up at 6am to be at the race.

My first mile :  9'24"

Right.  So I went off a bit quick and my muscles thought I was crazy and decided to save me from myself.

At the 3km mark I decided to start my shuffle again.  I was going to attempt this whole running thing.

Mile 2 :  12'56"

I picked my feet up and put them one in front of the other.  It hurt.  It really really hurt.  But the crowds were growing and I decided to smile at them as I shuffled along.  I remember the last few miles of the LA marathon and realised that you should never think that you will never hurt worse than you do at any point in time.

I listened to the people that I passed (someone else was walking!) and listened to the people that passed me and eventually I managed to get to the halfway mark.

Mile 3 : 10'35"

A huge band was at the 5km mark and they made noise!!!!  I loved it and gave them a round of applause which they seemed to appreciate.  There was only another 2 waves behind mine;  I guess they had a fair amount of time left at the time I went by them.

At this point I knew that I wasn't going to make it under and hour, but nonetheless tried to keep the legs going.

Mile 4 : 10'59"

Fun!  A small mist shower was setup and I ran through it as the sun had come out just before I reached it.  I was now enjoying the atmosphere.

Mile 5 : 10'24"

I knew it was just about over - only 1.2 miles to go!  Then, with a huge sign announcing that we had 800m to go - we turned a right corner... and there it was.  The steepest hill in the course.  ALL THE WAY TO THE FINISH.  You have to love the sense of humor.

Mile 6 : 10'26"

Absolutely lovely - loads of great people and finally over the finish line!

Mile 6.2 : 01'12"

I collected my goody bag, my medal, my shirt, my water and walked... all the way to the tram stop where I tried out the Lucozade energy bar - which is foul, just in case you are wondering - and then it was all the way home.

The race was fun, even if it was very, very painful.  And my legs are still hurting ... 10 hours later.  I think I might try this one again next year... but next time I want to be able to carry on at that first mile pace :)