Well good morning everyone, July nearly gone and lets welcome August!! (would like less rain please!) 🤞
Hey, guess what, I’ve been given the conch for this week (if you’ve read Lord of the Flies or seen the film– you’ll know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t read it, go, and find a copy or watch the film, great read/film, quite old, about a bunch of boys stranded on an island and working out the hierarchy – or not in some cases!)
Anyway, how are you all doing, reading the various posts across the week when I can, there’s various stories where runs have gone well, not so well or just totally different from what they intended to be, sometimes good, sometimes not so good, sometimes caught by the rain!!
I’m going to cheat a little today, because I’m going to talk about my week and then I’m going to do a little report on the Heckington Country Show 10-mile road race from Saturday just gone and then, I’ll explain why the picture!
What a week, work has been and continues to be absolutely hectic, and so I haven’t been able to get out as much as I would have liked to. Then the evenings I got all kitted up, suddenly from nowhere, the heavens opened! I don’t mind a little rain in fact I find it refreshing, but I don’t know about you, but I don’t like running and feeling like a bucket of water is permanently being poured over my head! So, the only night I did manage to get out for a gentle run, was Friday, the evening before the 10 miler. Some people think that’s good to run before, some people think it’s bad. I guess it’s down to individual choice,
So, Saturday’s race was way hotter than expected, but atleast for once I dressed for the first mile and not the second and did take off my long-sleeved top. I always get nervous before a race, but once we get started, I’m fine. We had to run twice round a track in the main arena ring (don’t know why) before we were out onto the fen and rural roads. Into mile 2 and hello, my groin starts to remind me that there is still a problem and it’s not going to let me forget it. So I find myself thinking ‘ok, its just a twinge, nothing to really worry about, get it out of your head’.
We do two laps of the fens road (and they're huge roads!!) and back on ourselves. You do have to be careful that you don’t get de motivated by the fact that the fast runners are already on their second lap as you’re just turning the bend to complete your first. But it was good to cheer and encourage as some of the faster runners were from our running club. At one stage I was running alongside a chap, and said to him, ‘ when I see all the faster runners, I comfort myself that most of them are 20, maybe 30 years younger than me, and that cheers me up! That made him laugh and he said it made him feel much better too!😂
Getting to 8- miles and was starting to feel very tired, so I had a word with myself, ‘ I haven’t paid my entry fee, not to finish this race and get my finisher t shirt, so I will finish regardless of my time!!” Did the trick.😀
Approx. 9.5 miles, turned the corner to come back into the showground and was really praying we didn’t have to do a lap of the showground to the finish line. Heard one of our running club members, shout, ‘right, get a sprint on, nearly there!’ so realised that the finish line was closer than I thought, oh such a lovely relief. Always surprises me where we get that extra energy from to be able to sprint to the finish line!! Finished at 1.32, and third in my age group, so I was pleased as it was my first 10-mile race.
Anyway, the reason for the T Shirt picture, is this; what slogan would you have on your t- shirt that would describe either your running or something about your running???? I thought about this when running on Saturday. I later saw the t-shirt pictured on a website and it did make me chuckle. So, lets have a laugh, what would yours be??? If you already have one, let’s see it!! 😊
From The Team xxx
🏅 If you’ve got an event in August, this is where you can let us know: healthunlocked.com/marathon...
🏅 Achieved 10 miles, HM, Metric Marathon, Marathon or Ultra (50K and beyond)? Grab your badge at healthunlocked.com/marathon...
