This was so different from my first HM. For my first I was running for a charity, I planned and prepared impeccably and I was fitter than I'd ever been. The weather was beautiful and there was no traffic on the road because everyone was in lockdown. We also had our eldest as support rider.
This time, I really winged it! I'd prepared and trained but without a plan but I thought I'd sorted it as I'd steadily increased my mileage and got a 10 miler out of the way which felt fine. Then life hit, as did the first cold of the season. Well I was ***** if that was going to set me back any further than was necessary, so I decided to do it anyway. Three weeks after than 10 miler...
So today, with a barely recovered and mileage lacking Katnap , we set out to nail this. I thought the best thing to do was to use two of our 10k training routes and add anything else on if needed at the end. I loaded my hydration vest up with gels, apricots and a bit of SiS infused water and off we went on a beautiful, crisp autumn morning.
The first route went fine, apart from a small, shallow lake that had formed along a footpath (we wondered why there were so few dog walkers!). I thought of linda9389 and her soaking wet VLM shoes and socks as we splashed through! We managed to restrain ourselves from running the last section of it at speed as we usually try to do, and then we turned right instead of left at the top of the hill to take in the next route (I could hear my body shouting 'what do you think you're doing, you're not supposed to go that way!').
I'd been fantasising about reaching a certain point in the run at the village of Alveston where I knew it was the point of no return. By the time we got there it didn't feel like a celebration, it was beginning to feel like a slog but there was still mileage in our legs. We only had 6k to go by then, so we dug deep and started to up the pace along the long, flat section which runs parallel to the river.
By the time we got to the outskirts of town my legs were starting to shout at me but not quite enough to slow down or stop. Katnap said to me 'are you feeling like me and just want this done?' He must have read my mind!
The last 3k were a mix of speed, pain and swearing! Maybe we should have taken those last few k a bit slower but if we had it in us then why not? Maybe I shouldn't have chosen the route with the roadworks on the pavement, so I had try to cross a busy road whilst running on the lumpy, bumpy grass verge? (Katnap had had the sense to cross earlier!) But then, if we hadn't gone that way we may not have had the most perfect finishing line - right at the pavilion in the park where our parkrun is based!
Ok, it wasn't the perfect run but it's our run and we'll learn from it. I'm as sore as I was last time but I also have the same warm glow of a job done. We both knew it was going to be tough but we both knew we could do it, and we did. I tell you what though, I know we wouldn't have done it without the knowledge of you lot behind us and a community doing it together - thank you! 😍🤗👍👍👍
Run Report
HUHM Race Report