Tough 'n' Soggy

I did my 'run half way to work' route this morning which in a word...  Or two I guess, was bloody horrible. Ignoring the hills which you can't do anything about in Surrey, it was made hard for a number of other reasons. These are as follows:

1. I haven't run anything like near enough recently. My fault completely. I mean I can come up with the most fantastic excuses if you want but I reckon they'll have a touch of bs about them. 

2. I have a shocking cough which produces a phenomenal amount of phelm in the mornings. Too graphic? Sorry about that.
3. I dressed for rain, I got warm, bright and insanely humid weather. It took over an hour to cool down afterwards. Even after the shower...

Why was I dressed for rain when it wasn't? Well it did rain just before I left and the weather/voodoo forecast said showers all morning and after Saturday's long ride with eatingtrees and spending an hour on a bike, in Hertfordshire, on tiny roads and country paths, IN A BLOODY THUNDERSTORM AND TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR I felt my body could do with slightly less moisture. It seems that backfired as the sweat was of epic proportions. Ah well, it's summer now right? So less rain? Yeah?

Thame 10k - Race Report

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!! I got to go for a run yesterday. The Thame 10k. I have a smile on my face again.

Lets put this in writing first of all... This is an absolutely superb event! The race was brilliantly and frequently marshalled throughout the course with some great little pockets of support who really gave myself and LG some encouragement. There was plenty of parking and it was pretty much on the start/finish line and again, well organised. The course itself is a beautiful and picturesque little route that takes on a few bigger roads, a little quaint High Street and an approx 3/4km section on a little path away from any roads called the Phoenix Trail. If you needed more positive reviews, it has a 9.30am start which is great. It's like the organisers have used their brains and actually thought 'maybe people still want to have some of the day left after the run' which I can't praise them enough for. The feel of the event was great too. A friendly, local feeling even though we out out-of-towners with the announcer calling mine an LG's names out as we were putting in our sprint finish.

This was Lovely Girlfriend's first ever 10k. In fact, the longest she had ever run was 6km last Dec so this was a big step up and was blighted by some training injuries that pretty much stopped any proper training until 2 weeks before the race. We ran the entire thing together and after some good parts and a few short walking stops, we crossed the line together in 1:06:54. It wasn't quick but it was certainly respectable considering the lack of training and the first event at that distance and when I asked her whether she enjoyed it, her words were 'more than I thought I would' which is a massive improvement on the words after my first ever event, which were something along the lines of 'that was effing awful and you're never going to see me near a pair of trainers again'. Last night she even agreed that for the one in November, she'll be aiming to go under an hour. I'm very proud of her effort. She did fantastically well!

The one bad thing I can say about the event is the lack of toilets as there were only a few in the leisure centre but to be fair, it only cost £11 to take part which I feel is a bargain and I've paid a lot more for a lot worse in the past. It just means a little bit of queueing!

I think I heard the tannoy say there were around 950 people taking part and the results list said 920 finishers which is probably about right in that heat. There were a couple of pavement eaters but they were quickly helped by the marshalls and St John's ambulance cyclists. We (nos. 56 and 57) came in 800th & 801st so LG can be very pleased. Will I be taking part next year? WITHOUT A DOUBT!! Sign me up! Event wise, this was my favourite 10k so far!

My injury seemed all good. No problems during the race and obviously aches a little now but I think that if I just keep stretching and exercising then it will be fine in the long run.

The day was complete by driving straight to a friends house near High Wycombe (where we had kind of invited ourselves) who let us use the shower and then cooked us the most amazingly gorgeous 3 course lunch. We didn't move from the table from about 1pm until around 5.30/6pm. Well and truly stuffed!!! It was a great day.

One final point, the weather man hasn't been more wrong about a day's weather since a certain October 1987 event. Overcast? Grey? Rain? WHERE??? Another race, another sun burnt head. Thank fudge for Banana Boat!