I had this epithony during Monday night's final "Learn to Run" session as the SUPERchicks undertook a 7.5km route up and down a section of the Thames and around Battersea Park in preparation for Saturday's 10km Boutique Run. Later it turned out the course was actually 8.5km - somehow we never seem to wise up to the sneaky tricks of the SUPERtrainers - SUCKERS - just a shame I'm one of them!
I would love to be able to say that the 8.5km was a breeze but actually I was less than a 1km in when I just wanted to lay down for a nap. So I slowed to a walk for 15 meters then picked the pace up again but all too soon I slowed down to a walk again. In all honesty, I could and should have kept running but somehow I just don't have the required mental tenacity. I'm just too easily distracted and flighty/weak which is not proving to be a winning combination for this trainee runner.
After a bit, I got myself into a pattern of challenging myself to run to every second parking meter before walking 15 paces and then running to the next but one parking meter. When I ran out of parking meters, I selected every fourth lamp post and when the lamp posts disappeared I selected a tree in the middle distance. Sometimes I even managed to run past my marker without noticing, but I seemed to slow to a walk A LOT. At a guestimate, I would say I slowed to a walk 20-30 times over the 8.5km. Again repeat: I SUCK at running. However again, at a guestimate, I don't think I walked for more than 1km in total so actually fabulous SUPERtrainer Cat didn't totally dupe me - I did only run 7.5km - I forgive you Cat, just this once!
However the total route took me 75 mins to complete - not great as it means that if I attempt the 10km on Saturday - it will take me approx 1.5 hours - how tragic is that?! Someone had better save me some CHAMPAGNE is all I can say!
Check out Jo's Olympic Medal (ok Al's) but she TOTALLY deserves one.
The only reason I completed the course at all on Monday night is really all due to SUPERchick Jo who totally inspired me to keep going when really I just wanted to give up and DIE. This SUPERchick, I kid you not, ran the complete 8.5km course, without stopping or slowing to a walk ONCE - How awesome is Jo?!! In my determination not to lose track of her because a) I really didn't have a clue where I was going and b) I was fascinated to see whether she would slow to a walk at some point, I also completed the course and somehow consistently managed to stay not more than 50 meters behind her (until the home stretch when I had traffic issues). Therefore I can personally testify that (maddeningly) the girl didn't slow to a walk once - REPEAT: Jo is AWESOME - particularly as she made it look so deceptively easy. I need what she has. Pronto.
Well at least I get another shot at this running malarky this Saturday, provided the creaky knees don't totally give out from shock. If all goes to plan, I will have run further in this one week than in the 26 years to date - CRAZY! So fingers crossed I can keep the awesome Jo in my sights on Saturday and hopefully I can cut most of the walking sections out too. x
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