Skip to main content

A 10k and a pint

By
The snowy weather has put many things off course in the past few days..but we runners are a hardy bunch, and need only the glimmer of a possibility of a run to declare that all is well. And so it was with the Stubbington 10k, a well-known course for local speedsters, with only 100m of climb during the race (limited to 2 sharp inclines) and a mostly traffic free, pretty and well marshalled course. As well as excellent facilities, plenty of portaloos and lovely home basked cakes afterwards at a staggeringly good value 30p, you could hardly ask for more. A really great event...which, in the dark days of last week, we whispered 'might it be cancelled?' We waited patiently...

However the good news rang out at 1pm yesterday, and so, this morning, slightly trepidatious about the journey down to Lee on Solent, I sallied forth into the cold and quiet morning on the M27, hardly a soul to be seen. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the commencement of the falling of the powdery stuff did dampen the soul a bit...and I started to worry that I was, in fact, barking mad to do this. On arrival all such worries were banished as the MAMILS (Middle-Aged Men In Lycra - several layers today of course) streamed towards the Community Centre. Warming up was bloody cold, and the legs scarcely kicked into gear after 15 mins of jogs and short sprints. Penguin-like we huddled on the start line, and then the off! Once I had worked my way past a few out-of-place lopers, it was time to put the gas down, which I did until the short hill at 8km just knocked the wind out of my sails a bit and forced me to trim down a bit and go into 'sustain position' mode.

They say that short distance runners hurt and long distance runners suffer, and you can usually be good at one or the other. I am sufferer, so this is what I can do - hang on when I ought to stop!

The end was in sight, a short sprint, and 39:48 on the clock. Under 40 mins, a very respectable performance given the lack of any specific training. Smiles all round, hands shaken, backs slapped, general bonhomie and an all round sense of delight at having partaken in this piece of mass madness (well over 1000 runners I'd say) and survived!

With a spring in my stride, I headed for home, and with lunch, a bottle of the perennially excellent Ringwood Old Thumper - 5.6%, a dark, malty, sweetish beer. Think of a crackling fireside, a cold night in a dark, stone-built pub somewhere on Exmoor - and this is your perfect match. Yummy. Always have to limit myself to one, though, as 2 means nothing else gets done for the rest of the day (no Blog posts for sure!)


A great marker for the year ahead, both in running and beerish terms.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

miles 20.64; Bike Miles 0; Units probably too many!

By
A couple of runs this week, Tuesday and Sunday, the latter a great long run - just over 14 miles - really feeling back in the swing of things, and ready to book some races now. It was just glorious to be out in the cool but sunny weather - absolute joy! I am finally feeling like I am able to run again. It has also been a bit more of a relaxed week at work, with a couple of days on a training course, and the rest of the time in the office. Also, the throat was gently easing out by the weekend ( I did promise not to go on about it).... ....which is good when I tell you that we went to Hotel Terravina again, this time as a gift for my 40th Birthday from Carol and Huw, to take part in a 'sabrage' event, which means that you chop the top off a bottle of champagne with a sabre! All very extravagant and grand - see me brandishing said bottle in the attached photo. What a great experience that was, really very special. Thanks to C&H for that! Other than the Champagne we also had tw...
3 comments
Read more

Miles: 23.2, Units 22 (hurrah!)

By
Trainingwise, not a perfect week. I didn't run my intended Frenches session on Wednesday, and opted instead for Cemetery Hill. I was planning for about 30 mins of effort, but at about 25 minutes I came across a cat that had been struck by a car, and was (not to beat about the bush) dying in front of me. Another car stopped and we got it ready to go to the vets, but it had clearly suffered too much. Not a great omen, and pretty horrible. I blew out my Friday run with a bit of a sore throat and a general feeling of lethargy- and so, I aimed on Saturday for a strong 10 miler with the same again on Sunday, to prepare for the 20 mile race on the following week - however, I had to work on Sunday from 7am to 5 and quite frankly a steady 40 mins was all I could muster up. All round a sorry picture - summed up nicely in this pic of me from the Clarendon marathon in 2007 Winewise also not a very exciting week. The most enjoyable drop was a bit of an oddity - Bricco Rosso Suagna Langhe Rosso ...
2 comments
Read more

Miles 33.84; Units 27

By
Exercise-wise, a back end loaded week. I had to miss three training days through pressure of work. Sometimes that's not such a bad thing, as it gives you a chance to recover. All too often, we runners can run ourselves into the ground, if we are not careful. However, after two days you start to feel the lack of exercise, and imagine that you are ballooning up in weight. This of course is not true, though that is little comfort. This may also be a personal thing, however I usually find that when I take more than one day off, a number of niggles emerge - in this case a touch of plantar fasciitis (for you non-runners, a pain like a drawing pin being lodged in your heel - see the gloriously Heath-Robinson picture of the necessary stretching to help the recovery). Maybe the body is just seizing the day and bringing the bad stuff out that it has kept under check whilst you are exercising - clearly 3 days is enough for it to think "oh good, we seem to have stopped all this mad runn...
3 comments
Read more