Okay, Plan Worked, Whoop, Whoop! What Next?

This morning I took part in the 25^th Darent Valley 10k and I didn’t fall to pieces, didn’t have to walk, didn’t go off too fast, blah, blah, blah!  I would love to say that I am now cured but I strongly suspect that this miracle happened because of that old runner’s homily ….

The run started at 8.30am, a time on a Sunday morning when more sensible people are snuggled up in bed, hiding under the duvet, perhaps sleeping off the effects of a riotous Saturday night.  Not me and 622 other runners!  I’m sure there were lots of other runners elsewhere in the country/world but there were 623 of us congregating in the grounds of the Anthony Roper School in Eynsford, a lovely rural village in the depths of Kent.

Start Line

Although an early start, this does mean that the run is over by 9.30/10.00am and you can get on with the rest of your Sunday feeling ever so slightly smug (although perhaps a little weary!)

It was a pleasure for me to actually have company pre and post run (thank you Phil and Jo :-)) and as this was a local event, there were lots of familiar faces milling around at the start – naturally familiar through parkrun 😉

The event receives great reviews, waxing lyrical about the views and countryside and they are not exaggerating, the landscape was inspiring.  Now of course, “views” suggests you’re either looking up, down or across at something and that inevitably means inclines are involved.  It is made very clear in the reviews that hills are involved so nobody can claim to have been misled, but there is one corker just after the 6k mark which although I did run up, it was more of a pigeon stepped jog.

My determination not to walk here was driven by the Shorne Woods parkrun Event Director informing me en route that after this particular hill, when you turn left, you’re faced with another hill.  Now I’m not sure whether he was winding me up, I will have to check, but when I turned the corner I was not faced with such a monstrosity.  It was the thought of another hill that made me more determined to keep going up the first one, planning to reward myself if necessary with a stroll once round the bend.  But fortunately the anticipated hill didn’t materialise (in my mind) and it was shortly after this that we were rewarded with the 3k downhill stretch towards the finish line.  And coming back into Eynsford accompanied by the sound of church bells could not have been more delightful, so evocative of an English Sunday morning 🙂

Hill (obviously!)

So I completed the run in a reasonable time (57’ 56”) without any walking and finished buzzing rather than bedraggled, and stating quite firmly that I’d be back again in 2016.  Another bonus was the fact I was in the W45 category – hey, I’m getting younger 😉

Today’s events were even more surprising to me because yesterday morning, I ran my fastest parkrun since the New Year’s Day event.  Now if you cast your mind back to my previous blog post you might recall that I’m taking part in Canterbury Christ Church University’s trial into the effects of nitrate supplementation on 5k running.  Well, let me say first of all that a number of us on Saturday morning were agreed that the PB potential was really not worth the disgusting taste of the “shot”!  I had tried to down mine in one but it took two gulps, rapidly followed by a glug of water and toast with plenty of marmalade to take away the taste!

Now some of you may be aware of the unfortunate side effect on one of your bodily fluids from eating beetroot.  TMI I know and I apologise but I have to advise that there was no sign of said side effect either pre or post run.  So now I’m pretty sure that yesterday’s shot was the placebo.  This means next week I’m in for a cracking run and PBs will be flying right, left and centre.  Of course, there could be another less scientific reason for my success – the fact yesterday we went back to Course A (two long laps followed by one shorter lap) and where I seem to run quicker anyway!  Let’s see what happens next Saturday, pressure’s on!