Every morning for the last week the weather has been so grim that I've taken one look out of the window and gone back to bed. Part of the problem is the weather, the other is that my normal run is over farmland and the idea of running through a quagmire is less than inviting. Chatting to Mr OBK last night we realised that there was an obvious answer - run through town instead.
In case you're wondering why that didn't occur to me before it's down to my knees, specifically my arthritic left knee. I'm very protective of it and have always run on soft grassy surfaces as these, I understand, are much more forgiving. The idea of hard surfaces has always been a worry but I decided to risk it. I've been running for over 9 months so hopefully have built some resilience.
Running on pavement felt very different, every time my feet hit the ground the rest of me was hit by a shock wave and started jiggling in a very unfamiliar way (ladies please advise, is this normal? Do I need a sports bra??) but I realised I was going faster than normal.
Running this unfamiliar route felt longer than when I recognise landmarks for distances, plus it was drizzly. I thought maybe I'd just do the circuit we'd decided on and finish at whatever distance that was. We'd estimated that we'd cover around 5k but realised towards the end that the route was a bit shorter.
At 4k I realised I was going a bit faster than usual so thought maybe I'd do the extra km and see if I could get a PB! Lots of dinghies sailing on the river so no excuse not to carry on, they'd be much wetter than me.
We carried on running to the start of our normal path (huge puddles, mud, good call not going that way) then backtracked along our previous route and completed the 5k right outside our front door. Yes! my first ever sub 40 minute 5k, 38:04 minutes. I think I'll be smiling all day!!! Not bad for an old lady like me 😁😁😁
😂
10k new PB 😁
An unexpected PB 😊🏃♀️☀️
Stormy 41 mins (5K)
