The Highs and Lows of a Long Distance Runner

The last week has been one of ups and downs, trials and tribulations, good and bad, light and shade . . . you get the picture.

Following our less than impressive 14 miles last Sunday I spent a couple of days in the office so my first run of the week was on Wednesday when I did a far from convincing 4 miles - 'piece of cake' was how it was described in my book but it was one of the most uncomfortable pieces of cake I have ever had.

Wednesday evening was discord night, now there is huge excitement at discord at the moment because on March 23rd we are performing!.  Rehearsals are in full swing and hopefully it will be a good night, at the very least it should be entertaining, I'm sure we will have a great time and hopefully the audience will too.

Thursday was the first of the week day longer runs, I needed 7 miles.  I had quite a lot to fit in on Thursday, you see on Friday I had arranged an evening out with a couple of girls from work that I hadn't seen for ages and I had nothing to wear, apart from a rather 'snug' black dress that would be a tad over the top for this particular evening.  I had done the internet 'window shopping' and simultaneous sighing which had got the desired reaction 'buy yourself something' to which I had given my standard reply 'I don't know where to start, I need so much' which actually was the truth, my smart casual wardrobe consists of some jogging bottoms, a few 'vintage' pieces that I'm hoping might come back into fashion one day, a penguin onesy, several ill fitting tops that I bought years ago in bulk because they were on offer and a couple of pairs of running tights, on an extremely limited budget it's tricky to decide which end to work on first but I decided that a new top might have the most impact and as I would be sitting down for most of the time, with the exception of the penguin onesy I could just about team it with anything and it wouldn't much matter.  My plan was to get up early and do the 7 miles, take a short lunch break, finish a bit earlier then nip to my shop of choice for all those couture essentials - Tesco!.

It started well, I got out of bed early, but . . . FOG, back to bed! . . . it was downhill from then on really.  I decided to run at lunch time but as I couldn't fit 7 miles into an hour thought I would split it and do the other half when I finished, later than I had intended, then I would go to Tesco.  I was just about to get organised at lunch time when my coach, who wasn't coming with me said 'is that the same as doing 7 miles in one go' there was a short interlude while my brain switched from positive to negative 'no, I don't suppose it is' I said 'I'll go and do the whole 7 when I finish' wardrobe shopping would just have to wait.  I took a short lunch break and planned to finish at 4.30 and go straight out, at 4.20 my plan hadn't changed, by 4.30 I had decided that it would be far too busy on the roads I had planned to run on, I would be a danger to car drivers and other pedestrians alike.  There would probably be an enormous amount of dog walkers about and because it was a nice day the dogs would all be off their leads?????? It would be much better to go first thing in the morning.  Well, I went to Tesco, which in Diss is not too much of a Tesco especially in the wardrobe department and I wasn't in the best of moods so of course there was nothing there.  I came home completely fed up and so cross with myself.  I laid out my running gear, set the alarm and decided there would be absolutely no excuses in the morning.

I was up by 6 . . . FOG, it didn't matter, I was out by 6.30 and . . .  it was possibly my best run yet, the roads were quiet, I hadn't had time to fill my head with negative thoughts and everything seemed to click into place.  I got back feeling really good, I was working by 9.  Andrew, bless him found a large Tesco and bought me a couple of tops and I went out and had a lovely evening with 2 very good friends.

Unfortunately all this messing about meant that I had to do another 4 miles on Saturday morning but it had to be done, so I was up with the larks running round the streets again.  Later that day Andrew and I went to get THE running shoes, these will be the ones that hopefully take me over the finish line.  We went to Sportlink in Taverham, Norwich where they do 'gait analysis'  Have to be honest, I really wasn't looking forward to this.  I don't consider myself to be a runner and I felt as though I was walking into the world of the professional runner.  It still feels a bit ridiculous to say I'm doing the London Marathon, in my head I might as well be saying 'I'm flying to the moon' or 'I'm a lion tamer'.  I was happy to go with 'I do a bit of running' it was left to Andrew to explain that it was a little more serious than 'a bit of running'.  I had a slightly embarrassing incident on the running machine but we managed to ascertain that the mid-sole support system I thought sounded like such a good idea back in October was in fact completely unnecessary.  My gait is neutral,  It made absolute sense and I am now the proud owner of a very smart pair of black and pink running shoes, neutral.  They also have some kind of grid system that disperses your body weight times a lot through your whole foot every time you land.  Could this be where the extra miles are coming from? Oh, I also bought a pair of very fancy socks!.


Rather too late that evening I mapped our 16 mile run, I found a loop plus a couple of roads that we would have to go up and down.  I was up early and ready too soon, by the time we went out the rain was falling and as we got further out into the open the wind was howling.  Andrew came in the car, there was no point him getting soaked too.  He was waiting on the side of the road with water and told us that the road I had mapped where we should turn off wasn't there!!!!!.  We went to the end of the road we were on and turned back on ourselves and came back, by this time the wind was in our faces, the rain was torrential and the road was sloped in very much the wrong direction.  We both started to walk, from then on we were walking and running at intervals.  I had no idea of how far we had been or had left on the planned course, we were soaked, getting cold and 'will' had left miles earlier.  At one point I had my hand on the handle of the car door and Jan said, lets just go the next mile and see how we feel.  We set off again, a white van driver soaked us as he speeded past but we were soaked anyway, it just seemed to make us colder.  I decided to change the goal and 'to get home under my own steam' became the new one, I had to be pleased with that.  The repeats didn't happen and when we got in I mapped the walk/run we had done, 12 miles, a little disappointing but given the conditions we had to be at the very least content.

Today, we have drawn a line, not going to dwell on the negative and feeling positive about the week ahead.  Today the weather has been awful but I didn't need to go out, my intention is to go out early tomorrow and do 5 miles before I start work.  I will let you know how it goes?????