Photo-bombing Racing Snakes
Well well well, it’s been a week of dialing back the miles a little but the intensity has certainly been up there!
So my training plan tells me to cut back the miles a bit every 3 or 4 weeks or so. I suppose this is to keep my tired old legs running with dome degree of competency.
It was Track Night on Wednesday and I don’t know what happens to the human body when you hold onto a relay baton, but something makes you think you’re 15 again and can cope perfectly well sprinting up and down for eleventy-million stretches of track as fast as you possibly can without fear of repercussions the following day… or the day after that 😬
Luckily, after track night it was walking only until Sunday which was the day of the Bridgnorth 10k.
For anyone who doesn’t know Bridgnorth or is familiar with the route, it’s basically 6 and a bit miles of up.
Sure, there’s a downhill bit along the by-pass but for a race that starts and finishes in the same place, there’s most definitely more up than down.
What’s that optical illusion of the stairs going round in a square but they are all going up? It’s that. That’s basically the Bridgnorth 10k.
I was also reminded on Sunday morning as we were all crammed under the Town Hall staying dry, of one of my small pleasures in life.
Photo bombing.
I’ve not had the opportunity in a while, but there I was surrounded by other runners doing the arm in the air, selfie in the crowd shot.
And so, if I see a camera pointed in my general direction, I do my very best to make myself part of the picture, you know, just for them to enjoy or notice later… and I got away with some on Sunday until… I flew too close to the sun.
My face got picked up by the camera - you know the yellow square that captures the faces in an image? Yeah. I saw it. The camera operator saw it. She turned around and claimed I was more enthusiastic than anyone else in the picture.
Sorry not sorry 😁
The run was good though. I’ve not run in the rain for a while. It certainly makes you feel way more bad-ass, and it wasn’t cold so pretty good running conditions really.
It’s a tough run - as you can see by my face as I crossed the finishing line. As much as I like a hill, I was very pleased to get to the end.
My hips on the outside started to ache at around 8km.. and hips don’t lie. I probably need to do something about that. Probably something that involves a large elastic band thing or a weird piece of gym equipment.
Now, I’m too old and too long in the running wankery tooth to get caught up in times and mile splits. I’ve always been a very average runner so I’m not going to get bent out of shape about where I come in my age group or anything like that.
Comparison is the thief of joy - it’s true of all things in life but in particular, I think it’s truest in running.
However, the person who won, did those 6 and a bit miles in 33 minutes, and that my friend, I simply cannot compute in my mind or comprehend the functioning of a body that can physically do that.
Awesome is not an adequate enough word for it.
If you’re feeling awesome, feel free to bung some pounds into my fundraising pot. You can pop it in here and it’s all going towards the brilliant Wyre Forest Nightstop and Mediation Service. They’re awesome too.
(I’m almost at my first £1,000 - it would be great to break past it this week!).
The miles are coming back on this week…