Posts Tagged ‘hills’

The most important thing I need to say is that I made it! It appears that concerns about my possible demise at the hands of the evil hills, by some, were misplaced. My daughter even took the worlds most unflattering photo of me approaching the finish line, which I hesitate to publish… But, as a warning to any of you who think that going from lard arse to runner is easy, I will let you see it…

The look of imminent collapse is priceless, as is the glowing aura I see to have gained – perhaps it was a precursor to a possible out-of-body experience.

The guy in the green vest, looking as fresh as a daisy, is Pete who decided that a gentle recovery jog would fit his training, so offered to keep me company and to offer support and encouragement. Thanks Pete!

The Brentwood 10k is a nasty, nasty initial race. The first hill was long and steep. Well, as I found out later, it was long. The second hill redefined my concept of steep. I was still struggling from the first beauty, and was already wondering about the remaining distance when this ugly monster loomed around the next bend. It’s a killer. Being “brave”, I suggested to Pete that we run/walk and like an idiot attempted to run up it a little, walked for a bit, and tried again. My legs were rubber, after that it was difficult to just walk. I wanted to lean on Pete, but didn’t want to break him!

After that, I started jogging again, but I was done in. Quite a few spells of walking came in over the remaining mile and I missed my goal of 68 minutes by 4 minutes – I think if the second hill wasn’t there I would have made it. Here’s my GPS plotShare

The unbelievable is happening. Tomorrow, I am taking part in a running race. I’m not sure I believe myself.

For a first race, this one looks like it could be a bit of a bastard. There is a distinctly nasty looking hill around about half way round. As if this wasn’t intimidating enough, there is another smaller (but steeper) hill toward the finish, just to finish off the unwary. This approximate map gives the idea – the graph at the bottom shows at 3 miles and 5 miles these nice steep inclines. I calculate them as being around 1:10 or 1:12. Evil, and nasty.

Over recent years it has tended to be a more serious race with mostly club runners. Probably, rank amateurs like me take one look at the hills and decide not to partake. Ha. Looking at last years finishers, I am likely to be in the last half dozen. Oh well, it is an important part of my training for the Great Eastern Run.Share