That evening, I disappeared out of the flat, dressed in a Batman hoodie, baggy tracksuit bottoms, my very clean new trainers and some gloves. It was freezing! Laura, the Couch to 5k plan voice, was rabbiting away on my iPod, I was listening to her instructions and I disappeared along the Thames towpath. 2.97k and 26 minutes later, I was a sweaty mess. I had fallen down a pot hole, I got wet as it had started to rain, and I was thoroughly miserable! This first run did not persuade me to give up though.
My first Couch to 5k run. God it was cold, wet and painful!
Fast forward six months, through the Couch to 5k plan, 17 parkruns, and lots of training runs around the local area, I stupidly (I do still think that) booked a place for running the Elmbridge Road Runners 10k race.At school I hated long distance running. 400m or 800m was my limit. Anything above those distances was suicide for my little legs. Even though I would cycle everywhere, play football and even walk around London, back when I was a teenager! 10000m! What am I doing??
Saturday 25 July 2015, I got myself organised. All my running gear laid out, then an early night. For a change, I had a good nights sleep. I woke up at 530am, and promptly decided that it was too early to get out of bed. After I got bored of watching the BBC News channel, I finally sorted myself out, and left the flat at 8am, for the short 10 minute walk to the Xcel Leisure Centre in Walton.
Did I feel out of place or what?? The indoor bowling green hall was full of those professional running types. They were all doing their stretches and warm ups around the hall. I sheepishly joined the queue to collect my running bib and timing chip. Once I was given the envelope, I found a quiet corner to sit down in, and just concentrate on breathing. That was an interesting concept, whilst the other runners were stretching, running on the spot, or just kicking their legs up in the air, I must have looked like a sea of serenity, sitting on the floor and just breathing. I was in my zone. A little place of zen for me to contemplate the race ahead.
The five minute warning sounded, and off we all went to the start funnel. A few smiles and pleasantries exchanged with the fellow competitors, and then the klaxon sounded. Off we went for the 10k race, at a very slow walk... Finally, the queue of runners broke into a jog, and by the first bend, we were all going at our race paces.
What I had told the voices in my head (there are a lot of voices in my head) that we were just doing two parkruns, just back to back. The first 5k was the Horsham parkrun, which has a few gradients, and I've managed to run Horsham parkrun at about a 6 minute per km pace, which is the time I had decided on. My legs were feeling a bit stiff in the first couple of kilometres, and I was following a lady, whose legs were bigger and more muscular than mine! And she was in her 60's!! I just tagged onto the back of her, and used her as my (not that she knew) pacer.
There was a makeshift water stop at the 5k marker, then the official water stop at 6k, which I made use of both . Even though most of the water from the cups ended up on my head, chest or floor! After the second water stop, I told the voices in my head we were now running the Bedfont Lakes parkrun, my home parkrun! If I could keep up the pace (27:16 my PB at Bedfont) of that parkrun, I would be back to the finish line in under an hour! At 7k, everything felt good, I was running fine, my breathing was still controlled, I wasn't feeling tired, my legs had finally loosened up, and not a stitch in sight! I decided to start upping the tempo. 8 to 9k was a good pace, then I had just got past Sunbury Lock and the voice in my head shouted, "just go for it!".
That was it, my fastest ever time for 1 kilometre! It just happened to be the final kilometre of a 10k race! Six months before, I thought I was going to die on this part of the course, now I was at full race pace (for me), heading along the final stretch to the finish line. I got back to the start / finish gazebo, I spotted the timer out of the corner of my eye, it had just clicked over to 55:20. I nearly passed out! My goal was to finish in about an hour, but I had managed 55 minutes for 10k. Shocked was an understatement!
Elmbridge Road Runners 10k 2015. It was also wet, but not as cold!
One shiny medal to start my collection.
Split times via Strava
Official times up on the board
After a good warm down session, of walking round in circles, some fluids replaced and some expelled, I spotted a few familiar faces from the Bedfont Lakes parkrun. I said hi, and congratulations on reaching 250 parkruns, to Carol Patton, which I got the reply from John Patton "I passed you at about 7k, then at 9k you come past me like a loon, at full sprint!" How I managed to get to full sprint, that late in the race I do not know! After showing John my trainers, which have my nickname on them, Loon, I went over to the hall again, and stayed for the awards presentation.
The Loon boots.
Outside, the rain was coming down hard, and I decided to run home, with my medal bouncing around and my number 21 running bib still on. A few of the anglers gave me some strange looks, but I didn't care, I had just finished my first 10k race!
No doubt, this will be continued!!
One medal a month will do!
