I did it yesterday! I didn't collapse, or trip over, or break my ankle or ANYTHING. I did nearly turn my ankle once, but it wasn't serious. I did it in 1 hour 11 minutes and 11 seconds, according the timekeepers, which I'm pretty happy with. That means I was running at 5.17 miles an hour which is fine. I also didn't come last, woo-hoo!
I did it at the RSPB's Lakenheath Fen reserve. They hold an annual Race for Wildlife. It's a suggested £10 donation for the entry fee and there are courses of 5K, 10K and 2K. The 10K route takes you round parts of the reserve not usually open to the public.
I did want to do it an hour but as soon as I started I knew that wasn't possible. Nearly everyone else there was from a running club and as soon as we started most of them tore off ahead of me. I think I had a few seconds of attempting to keep up but very soon slowed down to a more reasonable pace. I guess I could have tried to go faster and got a better time, but I didn't want to. I just wanted to do it.
As I was going round, especially at the start, I wasn't sure I was enjoying it, it was just something I had to do. I got a stitch fairly early on, then it went, then it came back close to the 30 minute mark (and came back again towards the end), so I walked for one minute then started running again. At about 32 minutes I got to the water station and stopped for, I dunno, half a minute?, to drink some water. I was told this was about the halfway point. Then the track suddenly got a lot more uneven and I was forced to slow down. The only other part I walked was down a steep 3 foot slope, and that was because I didn't want to fall down. The rest of it I ran. I'm quite proud. Thankfully the reserve is really flat - it used to be carrot fields, so I had no horrible ascents to deal with.
As usual, I felt a whole lot better once I'd finished it than when I was doing it. It didn't destroy me, I could talk afterwards and I could walk. In fact, I went for a walk with my friends afterwards and we spotted this awesome mushroom. At the time, I felt like I could have gone further, but I think that might be wishful thinking. I was certainly glad when the finish line came into view. Incidentally, my friends came first in the men's 5K and third in the women's 5K. That's because they are superfit and do lots of running. The winner of the 10k did it in 36 minutes. I wasn't sure that was possible, until a friend told me the world record for a 10k is 27 minutes or so.. Christ that's fast..
Today I feel battered. My right knee was hurting a bit last night, after I'd been sat down for a while. Today I'm not in pain but I do feel a bit achey and really rather tired. When I woke up yesterday I had a dead stuff neck - I must have slept on it funny. After the race it felt much better and today it is fine.
Since I was running on a nature reserve I should probably mention the wildlife.. I saw swans, tiny moths (or possibly butterflies), dragonflies and I heard a bearded tit calling. I'm pretty sure it was a bearded tit. The weather was fine - it was warm and it didn't rain. I was dreading it raining.
Would I do it again? Yeah. But possibly not for a while.
EDITED TO ADD: I lost my navel bar when I was running. That's only happened once before when I was in the gym doing an abs class. Obviously I was particularly sweaty on this run and the ball must have worked loose. I'm quite glad I didn't also lose the hoop at the bottom of my navel (I have two piercings in my navel - top and bottom). Now to ebay to replace it.
In terms of fundraising (donation page here) for the Abortion Support Network, here are the results:
Total raised: £305!!! I think that's worth saying again - £305!! That's amazing! Thank you to all my sponsors!
Money from me: £48. I think it should have been £46 but somewhere along the way I miscounted by £2. So I've stuck with that. I have included £3 for last week's training sessions that I didn't do, and £1 for the race itself.
Offline money from others: $20 (American). I've counted that as £12.
Donations through the fundrasing page: £196
Gift aid: £49.
That's amazing. That's really really generous of everyone. Thank you!
Regarding the donation page, there's currently a glitch in their system where when you edit the amount of offline donations it forces you to change the event start and end date to a future date, so the event details now read as happening on 21st October, not 19th October. I'll change it back when they've fixed it. But you can still donate for a further 3 months, if you would like. If you do, thank you!
I did it at the RSPB's Lakenheath Fen reserve. They hold an annual Race for Wildlife. It's a suggested £10 donation for the entry fee and there are courses of 5K, 10K and 2K. The 10K route takes you round parts of the reserve not usually open to the public.
I did want to do it an hour but as soon as I started I knew that wasn't possible. Nearly everyone else there was from a running club and as soon as we started most of them tore off ahead of me. I think I had a few seconds of attempting to keep up but very soon slowed down to a more reasonable pace. I guess I could have tried to go faster and got a better time, but I didn't want to. I just wanted to do it.
As I was going round, especially at the start, I wasn't sure I was enjoying it, it was just something I had to do. I got a stitch fairly early on, then it went, then it came back close to the 30 minute mark (and came back again towards the end), so I walked for one minute then started running again. At about 32 minutes I got to the water station and stopped for, I dunno, half a minute?, to drink some water. I was told this was about the halfway point. Then the track suddenly got a lot more uneven and I was forced to slow down. The only other part I walked was down a steep 3 foot slope, and that was because I didn't want to fall down. The rest of it I ran. I'm quite proud. Thankfully the reserve is really flat - it used to be carrot fields, so I had no horrible ascents to deal with.
As usual, I felt a whole lot better once I'd finished it than when I was doing it. It didn't destroy me, I could talk afterwards and I could walk. In fact, I went for a walk with my friends afterwards and we spotted this awesome mushroom. At the time, I felt like I could have gone further, but I think that might be wishful thinking. I was certainly glad when the finish line came into view. Incidentally, my friends came first in the men's 5K and third in the women's 5K. That's because they are superfit and do lots of running. The winner of the 10k did it in 36 minutes. I wasn't sure that was possible, until a friend told me the world record for a 10k is 27 minutes or so.. Christ that's fast..
Today I feel battered. My right knee was hurting a bit last night, after I'd been sat down for a while. Today I'm not in pain but I do feel a bit achey and really rather tired. When I woke up yesterday I had a dead stuff neck - I must have slept on it funny. After the race it felt much better and today it is fine.
Since I was running on a nature reserve I should probably mention the wildlife.. I saw swans, tiny moths (or possibly butterflies), dragonflies and I heard a bearded tit calling. I'm pretty sure it was a bearded tit. The weather was fine - it was warm and it didn't rain. I was dreading it raining.
Would I do it again? Yeah. But possibly not for a while.
EDITED TO ADD: I lost my navel bar when I was running. That's only happened once before when I was in the gym doing an abs class. Obviously I was particularly sweaty on this run and the ball must have worked loose. I'm quite glad I didn't also lose the hoop at the bottom of my navel (I have two piercings in my navel - top and bottom). Now to ebay to replace it.
In terms of fundraising (donation page here) for the Abortion Support Network, here are the results:
Total raised: £305!!! I think that's worth saying again - £305!! That's amazing! Thank you to all my sponsors!
Money from me: £48. I think it should have been £46 but somewhere along the way I miscounted by £2. So I've stuck with that. I have included £3 for last week's training sessions that I didn't do, and £1 for the race itself.
Offline money from others: $20 (American). I've counted that as £12.
Donations through the fundrasing page: £196
Gift aid: £49.
That's amazing. That's really really generous of everyone. Thank you!
Regarding the donation page, there's currently a glitch in their system where when you edit the amount of offline donations it forces you to change the event start and end date to a future date, so the event details now read as happening on 21st October, not 19th October. I'll change it back when they've fixed it. But you can still donate for a further 3 months, if you would like. If you do, thank you!
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