Mind The Gap

team run!

When I first started writing this blog one of the first things I did was set out a schedule so I had something to work towards each week. It was never meant to be a solid schedule, more of a guideline to encourage me to regularly post something of interest. So far, I think I’ve done quite well… or at least I’m happy with my achievements… that was until I realised I haven’t actually posted anything for two weeks. In my head that’s a poor show on my part, so here’s the blog I intended to post last weekend and a little bit about why I’ve been so crap…

Last Saturday, instead of having a nice lazy morning like most of the people I know, I got up at 7.15am and was on a train and headed for Richmond by 8am for my 5k run. As you know, I’m running the London 10k in July and am fundraising for The British Heart Foundation and RNLI, so this 5k was my version of a ‘warm up’ and a way to give myself an idea of my current fitness level and speed. All runners would be electronically chipped in this race (not like a dog, but with tags round our ankles like convicts) so this was a good way to figure out the time I was aiming for. Brilliant plan. What could go wrong?

We arrived at the race ready and raring to go (translation: sleepy and craving our beds), sorted ourselves out and warmed up. Eager to get started (so we could venture back into town, have breakfast and peruse the vintage car shop), we numbered up, tagged up and headed for the start line. The official gave us a quick rundown of the course, mentioned that that first kilometre had “slight incline” (joy!) and started the clock. We were off. And then the sun came out.

convict's electronic tag

After that it’s all a bit of a blur. All I know is that the at least 3 of the 5k were on a “slight incline” and 95% of it was in direct sunlight with no option of finding any shade. It was HOT, the sun was directly in my face for the 3^rd and 4^th kilometre and I almost threw up all over the second to last race marshal who was cheering me on. I would go as far as saying it was my worst running experience ever - I’ve never felt that bad whilst running before. In normal circumstances I would’ve stopped for a break but in this instance I was being timed by my stupid convict’s ankle chip so I didn’t want to let myself down. I somehow kept going, crossed the line at 29.58mins (my goal was to be under 30mins, ha!) and felt horrific for the rest of the day.

Now… a sensible person, having spent the previous few days battling a painful throat gland, would probably have taken it easy for the rest of the day, but me? No. I headed off that afternoon to a bbq and party, opting to cycle there through London and to immediately hit the Pimms. It was an excellent decision… at the time.

Four days later though, the sore gland was back, which spread quickly to my entire throat and gradually worked its way to my ears. I felt TERRIBLE. I left work early, headed straight to the doctors – who told me I had an infection that was starting to attack my tonsils and gave me a million antibiotics – and headed straight home to bed.  Five days later (today) and I’m actually out of bed, showered and have just eaten a whole gingerbread man. This may sound pathetic but it’s actually my greatest achievement of the week!

What’s funny is that as I’ve been lying in bed watching time slowly tick away, surrounded by empty strepsil wrappers and various ibuprofen and penicillin packets, I haven’t been worrying about the fact I’m missing work and getting behind. Other than being upset about missing out on all my bank holiday plans, what’s annoyed me most is that I’ve missed out on two of my scheduled blogs. I guess that speaks volumes (it certainly proves that my decision to leave my job is the right one!). So I’m going to do my best to get the other blog out by this weekend at the very latest.

In the meantime, you can still sponsor me for my upcoming 10k by clicking HERE. If you could also arrange for the sun not to come out on the morning of July 10^th that would be GREAT! *cries*

post death run