Last Saturday I was running the Coniston 14 half marathon.
The whole week I was quite lazy on my sofa and I found 3 million excuses to not go for a run, not even a little morning stroll to school.
My ankle was still half open and therefor very sore from a previous run and I wanted it to heal-
as you can tell, another lame excuse.
However. The night before the run, I checked the route description. For some reason I thought a road run around a lake would be flat, but the route description told me otherwise. I should have known since it was in Cumbria.
“…first 5 miles uphill…” Wonderful… Well, how bad could it be? I will be a bit out of breath for the first 30 minutes and then be fine, or so I thought
Pah, yeah that was a nice dream. The reality was different:
When I started to run, I was out of breath. And at some point, I wondered when these 5 miles finally end, as after that it was said, it would be more even. Fair enough it was even, for maybes 2 miles or so.
After that it was constantly up and down, up and down AND when I spotted the 8 mile sign, I got angry as I was very certain, that I already passed said sign!
On I went. The landscape was really beautiful, unfortunately the other runners seem just to run on their own. No one chatted to each other and when I tried to talk to another lady who was running next to me, she just stared straight ahead. “Don’t then”, I thought.
Near the end all of a sudden was another huge mocking sign which said
“Half Marathon Distance”. They just topped 2 more miles . How cheeky is that?!
During this run, I had to
- walk the hills
- tie my shoe again
- walk to drink and eat (didn’t figure out how to do it at the same time, yet)
- shake my hands out, as they where so swollen (due to a new drink), my fingers looked like sausages
- burst a huge blood blister after the run
Now all I have to deal with, is a very hurting toe nail, which high likely will fall off. Well that happens, when you wear no proper shoes.
Things I learned:
- Try new sport drinks before a big event
- Run at least one long run with your preferred running shoes
- Run at least once or twice before a race
- Never underestimate a road run
Franky