Yeah... I know you've seen it... Chevy Chase is about to take the family on their latest vacation, and there it is... the car...busting at the seams, everything but the kitchen sink in there.
That was how I felt going out for a run today. I didn't want to go. I'd had a fantastic night at The Crathorne Hall Hotel, it was sunny, warm, I'd eaten rubbishy non-carb food all day previously, and I was tired after being kept awake by a wedding party.
When we got home... on went the first t-shirt... then on went the second t-shirt (this is to stop the XL vest chaffing), then went on the XL vest which today felt like a double wetsuit layered bodywarmer...with a bit of sand insulation (just in case I felt a tad nippy in the current 19 degree climate). Then went on the cap, the sunglasses, the suncream and finally... the Deuter hydration belt... adding a further 1 litre weight to my already "donkey laiden" frame.
The first 3 or 4 miles I felt surprisingly good, and was congratulating myself.. then I got close to 5 miles and it all went a bit Pete Tong. I'd taken another road as *stupidly* I thought it would be a bit flatter... why do you always think the grass is greener on the other side eh? Turns out, in the car, this road appears flat, but in actual fact just slowly rises with a long... a very long, gentle incline. I had to walk a minute or so to regain my composure, but then decided come Hell or high water I was not going to walk anymore. I had a bit of a shoe issue a minute later which needed to be sorted out (inadvertently giving me another little breather) and I was off again.
I literally had to use every bit of willpower and had to really talk myself out of walking for the whole of the 5 miles home. I tried every trick in the book from "Training is hard so the race is easy" to, "You can't walk again or William and Shaun will think you're a right wimp" to, "Come on ya daft cow... just keep running".
I'm pleased to say that I did continue to run until I got home. I got to my gate and literally threw off my vest, belt hat and sunglasses and chucked them over the fence into the garden while I walked around the block to recover. In the last mile people in the village had been staring at me as I had forced every bit of energy I had into just getting home. As I walked around the block (twice... once wasn't enough to lower my HR today) I took off one of my t-shirts. It was completely drenched.
I've now been finished the run for about 5 hours... and I'm still knackered. I'm starting to realise that pain is just a way of life for me now. In a very strange way I do enjoy it though. It gives me a very warped sense of achievement. I have never pushed myself like this before... and to be honest, I didn't think I had it in me.
On a lighter note, I have decided to enter Florence Marathon at the end of November. I really want to give myself a good amount of time to train properly for a marathon, with a view to getting a PB, and a warm up race of GER 6 or so weeks before. At the moment, I have no idea how I'm going to get through the 2 marathons in August. Time will tell I suppose.
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