I know I said that I’d be continuing my endeavours to improve on my half marathon time this year, but I appear to have changed that thinking slightly. After chatting with some running club buddies about the Loch Ness Marathon for which an advert had appeared in my emails I accidentally booked myself on to it for September 27th, this year.
That’s all well and good, you might say. I have eight and a half months to build myself up and do a few halfs along the way to test myself. The problem is that one of the halfs that I’ve already booked is in Cardiff, the week after the marathon.
Hmmm.
It’s not ideal and the driving, to near the top of Scotland and then near the bottom of Wales is going to be long. But the sheer nuts-ness of it is making me smile. I think I’m smiling because it’s still far away, and I don’t have to worry about it yet. Ask me again in July and August and I may look differently. But for the moment it’s given me a boost to try and get fit in a less haphazard manner. Will I follow a training plan? Probably not, but I’ll try and get to a good base before my training begins.
My first half marathon of the year is coming up this Sunday. The Four Villages Half Marathon, otherwise known as Helsby Half. Almost forty Pensby Runners are going along which is a terrific club presence, and I’m looking forward to it. In preparation, I’ve actually strung together several longish runs. The final one of these was last Wednesday where I felt completely flat, had no energy and I still managed to complete a little over nine miles. In a long, long time, but still. I know I won’t die on the day because the long runs before this attempt had felt quite good. Not especially fast, but comfortable. So, I’ll go out, enjoy it, and just explore how I do. The daily weather check is looking good too.
For the first time, in possibly ever (certainly within memory), I have come first, and with a race to spare.
Because I turned up and have run in every cross-country race, and because none of the fast women in the club have even been close to matching my commitment this season, I have beaten them on points in our intra-club xc league. I know I brought up the rear in almost every race, but if you don’t run, you get null points, so I’m taking the trophy people.
The penultimate race of the season was completed last Sunday on a wet, grey morning in Runcorn. This was the one with the ‘ski slope’, a huge hill that gets steeper at the top, and also gets very sloppy, depending on the weather. It’s hard work getting up but even harder to stay upright going down, and even if I get around to buying longer spikes, I’m not sure I’d get any traction in that mud. It’s even harder on the second lap.
I did not want to do the race, but I had promised Rob, our team captain, because he was scrabbling around to get a minimum team together, and I was very close to getting the club trophy. The wipers on the car going out were not taking a break. Plus, my toes had solidified after the half-mile attempt at a warm-up I managed with Claudia. I think it was worse for her, as she’d only recently come back after spending two months in South America. As we stood at the start line waiting to set off, I could feel the muddy waters seeping into my running shoes as they sank lower into the boggy ground.
Yes, I brought up the rear again as last Pensby in, but I was out there and I ran it, and occasionally waded and slid through it, and I got my points. Anyway, after spending the first few hundred yards thawing out, I really quite enjoyed myself. This race certainly received the prize of the most cross-country like of all the races this season, for the sheer amount of mud, and the hills, and the rain. I do believe that more people fell down than stayed up right, certainly around me, and I was quite surprised, after clinging to the branches for dear life during the descent of the ski-slope that I remained vertical-ish throughout.
Despite the weather, I had nothing to complain about because after the five miles, we could all enjoy getting home to warmth and hot showers. Unlike my club mate Peter Hampshire, who spent the whole weekend out in the elements doing the Winter Spine Challenger South Race. A mere 106 miles from Edale in Derbyshire to Hawes in Yorkshire along the Pennine Way with over five thousand metres of ascent and over five thousand metres of descent. He finished well within the sixty-hour time limit despite the weather being rubbish over the whole of the weekend and it is excellent training for his second attempt at a Bob Graham round later this year.
I could never contemplate doing anything so gargantuan, but stories like these are inspirational because they’re attempted and accomplished by real people that I know, as opposed to top athletes. My marathon and a half later on this year seem quite doable now that I’ve followed Pete’s adventures. Especially as it’s ages away.
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