Cranleigh 21

Apologies for the delay in blogging but my recent holiday to Dubai got in the way somewhat :)

On Sunday 24th March I ran my longest race, the Cranleigh 21.

It was a bitterly cold day (zero degrees when we left home at 7am) so I made sure I had plenty of layers on, including gloves, which I'd learnt the lesson from after the Worthing 20. When we arrived in Cranleigh I headed for the band room to meet some of the other runners, and mostly keep warm before the 9am start!

It was a strange race in that there was no obvious start (it was literally on a side road, with no apparent signs), but that didn't matter - once the race started we headed out towards the countryside anyway.

The course included a few surprise hills, and was a 9 mile circuit with 2 additional 6 mile loops. Basically you could choose to run 15 or 21 miles on the day. I went through 9 miles fine, and as I was wearing my St Catherines marathon vest with my name printed on, lots of people were shouting support through the high street, which was much appreciated.

I then completed my first 6 mile loop, going past the 15 mile finish. I must admit, a teeny part of me said that I should just finish at 15 miles! It wasn't that I was exhausted...I was so cold! I literally thought my face was going to fall off, it was horrible. But I dug deep and saw it through. The last 2 miles were a killer though - my legs were a bit sore and then there was that awful hill climb to the finish.

At one point another runner told me that I shouldn't have my headphones in as I wouldn't be able to hear the traffic, and I snapped back at her that I couldn't run without music. I honestly don't know how people can do that - music is the only thing that keeps me going!

I was very glad to finish in 3hrs 22mins, and I knew then that I was definitely ready for Dubai and to start my taper!

28k - longest run yet

On Sunday I completed my longest run to date - 17.4 miles (28k).

I woke up bright and breezy at 7am and headed out in the bitter cold with the intention of running solidly for 3 hours and see how it went.

The pace remained slow and steady as I didn't want to over-do it, and the 3 hours flew by! I was in my own world, with Andy C and Nero keeping me company on my iPod.

As I headed home just over 3 hours later, I realised I'd just run 17.4 miles which is two thirds of the marathon distance :)

This has made me feel a lot more confident about the next few big races I have - the Worthing 20 and the Cranleigh 21.

I still can't quite believe how far I'm now able to run. 6 months ago I was struggling to run 10k!

A PB in arctic conditions? Snow problem!

On Saturday it was minus 2, the snow had settled and it was very icy underfoot. Imagine my surprise then to learn that the Riddlesdown Park Run was going ahead as normal.

My sensible part of my brain told me not to bother, that it would be dangerous, but then my more daring side told me to go for it - and I decided I needed to get outside for some fresh air as I was starting to get cabin fever at home! So I put the thermal base layers on and headed out...

55 of us braved the snow, and it was my most enjoyable race to date! I love the air when it snows - it's much fresher. The conditions underfoot were fine - actually pretty solid, and you were able to get much more speed than when it was muddy and bogged down.

To top it all off, I managed my fastest time around the course! I hadn't had a PB in a while, and I have to say it came as a bit of a shock - must have been that sprint finish as I overtook another runner in the final stages :) I'm now edging ever closer to that 25 minute target!

Here's me battling the snow - a great way to burn calories as the resistance is high!



Snow joke - the Park Run went ahead as planned!