Katnap wanted to call this one The One with Guff but I looked it up and 'Guff' is an unpleasant smell. Whilst we did go past the sewage works twice on our run, it wasn't particularly smelly, so my title wins.
We were very organised for this run. We went to bed early last night to make up for the one hour less sleep and I even got up and made an early breakfast so that we had the requisite time for it to digest before we started running. Unfortunately, a bit of faffing stopped us from starting dead on 9:30am and we were 9 minutes late. This has to be sorted before parkrun restarts else we'll never make it! Lockdown has made us very undisciplined!!🤣
As the weather wasn't going to be particularly good, we chose to revisit the route of the Bath Half two weeks ago (if anyone had told me a year ago that I'd be doing two half marathons in two weeks, I would have laughed hysterically! 🤣). I was under the false illusion that it would be more sheltered. Unfortunately not, we spent the first 11km battling a headwind. Still, as an 'out and back' route, we hoped that it would be kind to us on the way back...
We stopped for a quick break by the leisure centre as we had done two weeks ago, taking on a quick gel and some water. We also set up Beacon so that the kittens could meet us with coats at the end in return for hot chocolate and sausage rolls. Then off we trotted back again.
To say we had a tailwind wasn't really correct. Occasionally we got a little, gentle nudge but I would never call it a tailwind. However, it was easier on the way back and our pace did improve (probably something to do with not being constantly pushed back!), but our legs were quite tired from the outward run (yes, even Katnap!). Still we got back towards town quicker, and like two weeks previously some lovely people gave us a clap as we went past the cafe and car park, which really motivated us for the final push.
I tried to push the pace a bit as we got towards the end but there really wasn't much left. Katnap decided to push me even faster and I'm afraid I was a little rude to him in return (😳), so he slowed down a bit 😁. I ran about a bit afterwards to make sure I got my furthest run on Garmin and just to wind down a bit. Still, Strava still managed to muck my time up again, just like last time, so I'm giving my Garmin time of 2:17:37 which is 8 minutes less than Strava (why??!).
Just as we stopped, my body decided to react to the gel I'd had earlier and I got cramps. Thanks for waiting, gel...glad you didn't do that any earlier. So instead of stretching I had to hug my tummy for a bit. Not overly surprised as I've not been 100% all week. So it was out with the coffee and brownie and in with a nice cup of tea and a bit of Bakewell for later. And I got hugs from the kittens which always make me feel better 😍
This run was in memory of a colleague who passed away a couple of weeks ago, and my workmates have helped me raise some money towards Help for Heroes to remember him, which is awesome.
Although we weren't able to take advantage of the RunGo route and recordings as we ran together, we have been listening to the brilliant playlist as we've made our way through the Strava feed this afternoon. Thank you so much to linda9389 and roseabi for all your hard work organising this brilliant event!
So, what next? Well, I've just signed up for the Compton Verney HM in July which I soooo hope will go ahead. It is supposed to be really pretty but has an evil hill at 11.5 miles. It may also be a tad hot??? I've also signed up for JOGLE which is due to start just as I reckon I'll finish LEJOG6 in mid April, so good timing. I think that will do for now!!
Happy running you wonderful lot! It has been a brilliant day, yet again! See you at the start line for HUHM Autumn edition 🤗🖖👍👏👏👏🤸♀️🤸♀️🤸♀️
York Marathon - the one with a surprise near the end
Half marathon