I’d been gearing myself up for the 8K all week… I’d had an active weekend helping a friend so had half heartedly bashed out the 4K on Sunday evening, then the 5K slightly more convincingly on Tuesday… but i hadn’t enjoyed them as usual, my heart wasn’t in them and my mind was elsewhere.
The 8K was definitely happening today. I woke up to the sound of our garden gate banging... howling winds and sideways rain hmmm… not exactly inviting out there this morning! I crawled back into my nice warm bed, taking a gamble that this evening would be better. Just as I finished work this evening I received a well timed message from a friend who wished me well with my 8K today… I was now fully rev'd up and ready to go...
My luck was in, it was much better conditions outside this evening, 10 degrees, windy but no rain. I started my jog in Hill Head and planned to run the costal road to Lee, I kept the pace of the first half K low, I felt strong and much more with it today so started to build the pace.
The first hiccup was that only one of my headphones was working, not the end of the world but Ahem… Santa… I’m looking at you 🎅🏻👀 ...Then secondly, a regular occurrence now on most of my evening runs, I find myself running towards the local running club, suddenly becoming engulfed in 30+ runners dressed head to toe in high-vis... running in the opposite direction Aaaaagh! It’s starting to feel like they’re doing it on purpose now, hiding in a bush waiting to mob me!
As I approached the beach the wind grew stronger I’d got into a nice stride on and braced myself tightly for every sideways pummel I received from the Solent wind. Phiew! It was taking up valuable energy! but at least it wasn’t directly in front of me... I’ll be asking Dexy for any windy day tips as I’m sure she has a good technique down for this now! 😆
The 4k came and I headed on back, as I came to the last half a Kilometre of the 8K I started to run faster hoping to build to a sprint but as I tensed up in my arms my phone strap came loose EEEK! I’d like to think it was my bulging bicep that caused it... but it is probably more to do with the poor excuse for velcro that is on the strap… it appears to be made of what can only be described as fuzzy felt!!! The phone dangled precariously from the headphone wire whilst I was in semi-sprint... I whipped the phone up and ran to catch up any vital lost time in the melee… frantically looking like I’d just stolen a phone running fast through the dark village… 8K came and I hit the button, my average pace was 6:07 and the final time was 48:53.
The rain started to pour as I was on my cool down walk a couple of hundred meters from home, so I slowed myself down and enjoyed it! A refreshing finish to an enjoyable run. I feel like I got my mojo back on that final run of the week, despite the mishaps and the running club trying to mob me again...! 🙄😁
I hope you're all having a good week, roll on week 5!!!
⚡ThunderSloth⚡out
Magic 10 - W5R1 - 5K
