Finally, a Half Marathon Runner Again!

 I've probably mentioned in passing here and there the half marathon I had been training for, and how my training had been stymied a bit by getting cellulitis in my leg, and pulling a muscle in my backside. 

Well earlier in the month I walked down to Sconce Park, full of trepidation at 745am on a slightly chilly morning, to pick up my race pack for the start at 9am. I was running for a local hospice I had raised some money for, and was resplendent in one of their "technical running shirts". 

I don't know what was that technical about it, it caused some rather painful chafing. 

A thousand runners, the vast majority of them looking rather fitter than me, were milling around, stretching, fuelling with energy drinks, bars and gels, and applying various hi performance creams to their limbs. Me, I had eaten some very retro cola bottle sweets. 

IBS is such a pain sometimes. Well, most of the time. 

A Mrs Motivator gave us a pre run stretch routine, and then we formed up in a long conga line in predicted time order. I was towards the back, with my fellow two hours 20 people. 

We then crocodiled out the park like a school trip, before beginning our run on the main road. 

I started far too fast. Of course I did. But running with the 2 hour 20 pacemaker just seemed very un-natural, so I just went off and did my own thing, knowing full well my legs were going to fall off at some point and hoping to get as far as I could before this happened. 

I was hoping to get to 10 miles. I made it to exactly 8, on the long two mile country lane section which I knew was going to be a bleak, hard and lonely section. Being a mainly rural course, there weren't the cheering crowds you get at the London Marathon. Unsurprisingly. 

The next mile and a half or so was a real struggle, more so as it was getting quite warm by now. I would force myself to run for brief sections by saying "Tree", "Sign", "Hedge" or "Water Stop" before walking again. 

Fellow runners must have thought I was going mad. 

After getting to Thorpe village, it got easier, helped by the hospice putting a cheering squad at the 11 mile mark, with the pull of home drawing me along, albeit pretty slowly. 

I trotted through the finishing line in two hours 17, and immediately drank all the things, and ate a bag of haribo like a pig. I felt pretty proud, and so did my sister, which was the loveliest part of the day. 

Now, will I do it again? 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.09.26 

The Accidental Racer

 So, feeling rather fat, lumpy and lazy, I got a bit fed up with myself  and with no games of cricket in my legs from the weekend, I decided to take myself out for a gentle run down to the park.

Or so I thought.

When I got down there, after a fairly gentle 1.5km, I found a lot of activity around the football changing rooms. A large gaggle of a couple of hundred runners, mostly clad in the luminous orange and yellow of the Striders and NOTFAST running clubs respectively, had set off down the path in what was obviously an organised race with marshals, timekeepers and a finishing funnel.

Realising that my usual route in the park would take me running head on into the dense fluorescent stream of joggers, I decided I would follow them around - and see how many of the slower ones I could pick off on what turned out to be a Parkrun type 5km race.

I felt rather cheeky for joining in, and felt compelled to apologise, Withnail like, to every marshal I passed.

"I appear to have joined in a race by mistake".

They didn't seem too bothered, and kept on clapping me as I trotted along.

I say "trotted", but this being a race with people running in front of me to act as hares, I found myself rather thrashing it as the adrenaline took hold, and because I was effectively running a 6.5km race rather than a 5km one, I began to suffer round the last half lap, to the extent that one or two of the tortoises were able to catch up to me and pass me again. 

I did however have enough wits still about me to be gracious and step off the course just before the finishing funnel, before rather stiffly setting off for home. 

My first organised race for a few years, and I never even meant to take part.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 07.06.22

Riverside Walkings

It had rained overnight, and it did so again today.

But it was light, and curiously refreshing rain, so I rather enjoyed it as I walked out towards Farndon, and came back in along a river reflecting dramatic cloudscapes as various weather fronts moved over.

There wasn't anything amazing to see, just the boats parked up in front of the houses that back onto the Trent. A few gulls sat ornamentally on various vantage points, and noisy mallards squawked their way around the watercourses.

I didn't do any geocaching, but I did find a different sort of treasure. At Sconce Park, they have have had children paint up some stones and hide them around the grounds, and today I came across one in the charming sign for the mini reserve of Hawton Holt.

I wonder where the rest are? I hope I find a few more, I like being able to come across things like this.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.11.17