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 🤗🖖👍👏👏👏🤸♀️🤸♀️🤸♀️
Written by
TailChaser
Marathon
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Just fantastic you! Sorry your tum hurt but you seem to be okay now? Kitten hugs.. excellent!Brilliant that you did it when you were no 100% either!! What a great time!
PS
When I read this out to him....J just asked me if I wanted to think about a lone HM with him, as a bicycle support team, in the Autumn .! What d you think ? Maybe a Cat family get together somewhere! Ha ha !!
Thank you Floss! 😍 Yes, I’m ok thanks. Lovely Epsom salt bath and a bit of yoga and Katnap said I looked loads better. Maybe a little less running in April?!
I’m glad you had a good run, odd thing about headwind then you turn round and it doesn’t push you home. I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s occasionally a bit rude to a running partner 😂 I never run far enough for gels but am wary 😒
It’s odd Willow, I’d been fine with gels up to earlier on this month, then wham! Not sure why. Maybe it will settle down again if I’m not doing so much mileage but I suspect it may be my hormones as they are all over the place atm.
Glad I’m not the only one too (that may be hormonal too!!) 🤣
Fantastic run for you both! That wind was hideous wasn’t it. 💨💨💨 Too bad about the tum reaction, but yes you’re lucky it wasn’t while you were running. Can’t quite believe we managed 2 HMs in March! Go us! 💪
Big congrats! 🎉🎊🍾🥳 Woohooo 👏🙌🎉🍾 Well done - well run!
And yes, I did see the announcement of doing LEJOG backwards! 🤣🤣 Tempting, but I think I’ll opt for something more realistic for my level of distance. I am so in awe of all you HM runners!
Thanks CB 😍 I was like once too. I didn’t even feel worthy of joining up with the forum but you’d be surprised, just pushing that distance year after year. Can’t believe now that 10km used to be so hard but my first was nearly 3 years ago now and lockdown has been the perfect excuse to push the distance and fitness a bit more.
I was going to do Route 66 but it’s as if the LEJOG gods saw me getting near the end 🤣 had to do it really 😀
Congratulations. Sounds so organised. I arrived home to find everyone still in bed-including the dog! But by the time I had showered a hotcross bun an Espresso were waiting for me curtesy of Mr W7.
Aw, that’s lovely Wk7 😍 Well done to you too! I don’t blame them, it was much nicer in bed this morning. The kittens did leave it very late though, they had to run to meet us (which probably is no bad thing!).
I often find that a wind that's hard to run in to disappears when I turn round. I think that's because, when running with the wind, there's not much speed difference so I don't really feel it. Although I definately feel the lack of headwind!
Sounds like you could do with experimenting with different refuelling. Maybe something that you can chew? Although, I've found that when refuelling on the run it helps to take small bites so that I can still breath whilst I'm chewing!
The lack of headwind was so nice SM we weren’t so bothered about a lack of tailwind.
You’re right, I probably need to do a bit of experimentation. Something has changed in my body I think as I never used to have a problem. I don’t really like eating and running. I used to have dextrose tablets when I cycled a lot, I may try them again. Thanks for that, it’s made me think.
Thanks Linda, I’m feeling very smug with myself tonight as HMs were such a big deal to me for so long and I feel like I’ve broken the back of them now. I’ll have to try non stop without the break one day and see how Strava does with that. At the moment my HM pb is slower than my moving time which makes no sense whatsoever.
Haha... maybe. I keep trying for London as I always said that would be the only one I’d do but if I can’t get a place... I really can’t face doing a FM virtually though, I don’t know how you did it.
It was possible because it was all so last minute! Only 5 weeks training and the novelty of running it with someone else made a massive difference for the run itself - I'd never run with anyone else before the three runs I did with her (apart from C25K which I did with my daughter, but that was very different).
Very well done Kats, that sounds like you pushed all the boundaries yesterday. I bet you were glad to see the kittens at the end of your HM.
Sorry to hear your were a bit 🤢 at the end but a cup of tea cures all ills.
Be assured, running partners do need reining in every now and then, and I have been known to say a rude word or two to UTS! 🤬
I am confused about your different times. Are you running Garmin and Strava at the same time? I run using Garmin and it automatically downloads to Strava, so generally they agree with each other, minus 100m distance .
Yep, love a cup of tea over any other drink 😋. It was lovely and so were the kittens! It’s only happened recently but I have been loading on the miles this year so maybe it’s that?
This problem has only occurred on the HMs and I do the same as you - it’s the simple feed from Garmin to Strava. I can only think it got muddled over the break when I paused it - we never usually have a break on other distances. Very annoying as I’ve reached the sub 2:20 goal time I was after last year but it’s doesn’t show on Strava 😩 But then over 5k Garmin doesn’t show it correctly but Strava does! 🤷🏻♀️
Looks like many of us give our running partners what for when they speed up! I don’t think the really speedy ones even realise what they are doing!
Congrats on a great run! I think winds are like hills - you never get as much benefit from running downhill/wind as you lose running uphill/wind. Tea, bakewell and kittenhugs sound like the perfect post-run reward even if the gel disagreed.
It was Blackberry. It’s all part of the story isn’t it? Which is another reason for doing this madness. There aren’t many positive things around at the moment so we need to make the most of every one of those, even if they do include a gurgling tummy 😊
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My Spring HUHM
York Marathon - the one with a surprise near the end
Half marathon