Running in the Parks

I've been doing a bit more running lately, but sadly not as much as I'd hoped to - a hurt knee, work travel and fatigue conspiring against me.

A few weeks back we ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon, Tasha taking up a spot in the npower team from a colleague who couldn't make it. The event itself was wonderful; really well run and the route was beautiful and fun. The weather was perfect, if a bit hot (not that I'm complaining) which added to the atmosphere.

Sadly I got caught in terrible "traffic" at the start, and battled to get into a nice quick rhythm. I felt really strong up to about 10 miles, but then started to really struggle - my hips and knees feeling pounded. I finished feeling absolutely awful, and it showed in the time - a 1:42 or thereabouts. I was gutted.

A week later I discovered that we were the fastest corporate team - by 6s! Incredible. I am so glad I fought the urge to walk the last km or so! It would have been even worse to have lost by a tiny margin and know that if I'd just dug a bit deeper...

Ifs and buts aside, it was a great outcome to what was overall a lovely run. Still a disappointing experience for me in that I know that I should have done much better. Lessons learnt - it has been a bad year in terms of keeping in competitive shape; I can only make sure I do better next year.

My training runs, when I've found the time, have been good apart from yesterday morning when my knee felt like it wanted to explode. Now it is just throbbing and I sense I need to be gentle with it for the next month or so. Which is extremely frustrating with Cross Country starting next weekend! I'll see how it shapes during the week - and hopefully I'll have some good news to post in a week from now.

Bye for now!