Two of the most important things about running for me are its quality of catharsis – a good run can usually make even grim things seem better – and it’s supportive, inclusive and kind communities. Not one community, but many – whether it’s this wonderful group of individuals below the line, a running club, an online forum, or the nervous and jokey chat at the start line of a race. Thank god for the running communities over the last few days, then.
On Sunday, after not very much sleep and some runs that – for once – did not make me feel any better – I lined up for the Harry Hawkes 10 for the first time. Having finally felt like I was coming back into form, I wanted to properly race it, but was nervous that negative thoughts and a general atmosphere of doom might not help my head. So I took a leaf out of Asta’s book, and ran it “blind”. Oh well, ok, not quite: I put a strip of gaffer tape over my Garmin, turned in on at the start but didn’t peek until after I’d finished. This allowed me to judge, post-race, whether the patches that felt hardest really had been.
It was an interesting experiment – and resulted in good and bad. On the plus side – a lovely mixed terrain course, fantastic marshalling and organisation, a good race, a podium finish (third place!) and a much more steady pace than I would have expected, judging only on feel. On the negative – five seconds outside a PB! Gah! Then again, even if I’d been looking at my watch, I didn’t actually know what my 10 mile PB was until I looked it up after. And properly racing did make me feel a bit better than I had before, and not just because my prize included a bottle of wine.
So over to you guys. Mutual support still remains, yeah?
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