I had mixed feeling leading up to this race. My training's been a bit of a mixed bag over the last few weeks thanks to these bad boys!
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| My beautiful new shoes! |
Now, when I say bad boys, I don't mean bad in some young hip way of meaning good - I mean they bloody killed me! I won't traumatise you with pictures of what they did to my feet at first, but mangled would be a good description...
So my training plan over the last few weeks has massively revolved around running as much as I can before it got too painful, which was often not very far as I'm really mardy!
I managed to pack in a few decent runs mixed in with a few rubbish ones so I really wasn't too sure how I felt about today's race. I decided around a week ago that I was going to give it a good go and try not to worry too much about the clock (knowing damn well that as soon as I set off the clock would definitely be at the forefront of my mind!)
The day started dull and dreary and hadn't really changed by the time we made our way from the carpark and into the grounds of the hall. It's easy to say today's run was in the most picturesque setting - here a photo of my ready and raring to go!
The time came to get going and I set off in good spirits, the weather was perfect, the atmosphere was great (I've not even mentioned the purple army that was Notts Women Runners!) and it was generally shaping up to be a good race.
Keeping one eye on my pace, I set about the first few km with the usually early-distance enthusiasm. Until around three and a half km in it was going well, and then I don't really know what happened, it all just started to unravel and I forgot how to run!
I kept trying but I just couldn't get my feet to go how quick I wanted to. By the 4th km it was awful, I'd come to the conclusion I would just have to walk for a bit. Anyone who's listened to me this week has had the pleasure of me moaning about 'not quite feeling right' so I don't know if that was it, but every time I tried to break from a walk into a run it just wasn't happening.
I crossed the 5km marker and gave myself a bloody good talking to. I could do this, I was more than half way and I was only running about 5 mins behind where I should have been for that distance.
The next few km were fairly uneventful, infact I'm really glad I had the walk in the middle because it helped me keep a fairly even pace afterwards, I glided (I like to think I'm that graceful) past the 8km marker and soon saw the beautiful 19th century mansion up ahead. My motivation was the highest it had been and I set about sprinting (well running a bit faster) towards the finish.
Friendly faces really are invaluable encouragement, and seeing Dad in the distance made me run a bit faster, I even offloaded my water bottle and iPod with him as I got to the final 250m, thinking it would make a massive difference to my speed.
I don't need to talk you through the last 200m because for the first time it's recorded! It's not pretty, it's sweaty and wobbly and not half the picture I had in my head for what I look like when I run, but here it is!
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| Me proudly holding my medal |
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| My number and a close up of the medal! |
I've already got a jam-packed plan of races I want to do next year, which is the reason for the name change which the eagle-eyed of you readers will have noticed (all five of you!)
Again, I didn't think I had much to write today, so thanks for sticking with it if you've made it to the bottom!!
Until next time!
Kay xx
