Monday 1 October 2012

Carr Lane Revisited!

Training and racing have continued to go well since the Great North Run.  Having had a few days rest I'm now back to club and looking forward to the Bridlington Half Marathon. The last week or so have seen us training in some horrendous weather, getting a thorough soaking most nights. Last Monday and Wednesday being no exceptions.  Monday was just a short interval session but by the time I had finished running into the lashing rain along Canal Road I looked like I had jumped into the road's namesake! How nice is it though, to get home and jump into a lovely warm bath when you're cold and wet?

Wednesday was the first training session for me from our Winter base since ERR moved back to Undercliffe Cricket Club the previous week.  It's nice to get back to some 'new' routes when Summer training ends and vice versa.  This week though I was dreading the thought of revisiting Carr Lane at about the 6 mile mark for the first time in quite some months -  I did question whether I may or may not get up the 'hill from hell' without stopping.  I often recall the early days of club running and my attempts to get up it, my making land marks of where I got to without stopping, 'the first bus stop', 'the second bus stop' etc.  On  'going all the way' for the first time I remember my elation and it obviously did wonders for my mental attitude towards it since, all be it slow, I have managed each attempt in one every time since! There is nothing like getting to the top and turning to look at the spectacular view of the town of Shipley - if you can stand upright enough to look whilst trying to regain control of your breathing!

I wasn't able to run on Friday due to work commitments, yet another wet and windy evening made me thankful I was actually indoors even if it was at work until going on 11pm.

And so.......to the weekend.  Horsforth 10k on Sunday, I had several emails from the host club and I ignored the first couple telling myself I had already entered.  Finally I decided to check in my 'race entries' email folder whether I actually had since I now had my third or fourth email from them in a week! It turned out I hadn't entered! I have no idea why but I still held off entering telling myself I could enter on the day if needs be.  Still undecided I made pasta for Saturday tea and then began to wonder whether I should have a glass of wine with it. Just one I thought, well maybe two - I'll see if I feel ok in the morning and then decide whether to enter or not.  So it continued, I am convinced I was still undecided as I left the house at 9:10 and headed down to Apperley Bridge.  I parked up and it started to rain, I began to jog along to the registration area still thinking I wouldn't be disappointed if there were no entries on the day left.  There were.  I joined a large queue and paid my entry fee.  Just time for a quick warm up before we were walked a short distance to the start on Woodlands Drive.  I then realised why, surprisingly, I had only done this race once before, quite likely due to the fact that it was uphill for the first two miles. I soldiered on but quite soon began to feel awful.  My legs felt weak and I gasped for air. Thankfully we reached the part where we were turned right and I knew it was flat and then downhill.  I managed to pick up a bit of speed and overtook quite a few other runners.  Downhill and then the canal would usually be a perfect time to get control of your breathing and pace your way to the finish. Not so for me, I continued to feel terrible as I tried to find my pace - I just had nothing in my legs, I could barely put one foot in front of the other and considered stopping quite a few times,  Finally we turned into Woodhouse Grove to the finish, people surged past me as I struggled to keep moving forward.  Thankfully it was a long finishing funnel, a chap in front of me was hardly able to walk, asking if he was ok he said he was but he couldn't walk any faster. I reassured him that he was ok, I didn't want him to go any faster and breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't about to keel over in front of me! It seems the race had taken it's toll on a few of us! No doubt all will be forgotten until the next time, I will though, learn from that hopefully and prepare better, I already know that mind as well as body needs to be in order if we are to give ourselves any chance of having a satisfactory race so shame on me for acting the way I did. Amen
If that isn't enough to make me want to make better
preparation I don't know what is!


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