October is a fine and dangerous season

[Charliecat5]

At 8:30 yesterday morning I arrived at Birchanger services for a meeting (I know, it’s a glamourous life).  This started with breakfast: a large bucket of coffee and a croissant.  Having completed the meeting at around 12:30 I grabbed a bite size sausage roll and legged it down the road for another meeting that took the best part of the afternoon.  A quick de-brief and then I was back on the road, furiously heading south in an attempt to meet up with the herd at 19:00.

My Satnav consistently said I would arrive home at 19:00 and amazingly, probably due to the half-term lack of traffic, I did.  I raced in, shouted “hello”, stripped off my suit, climbed into my stinking running gear and was back out of the door, flying down to the leisure centre.  Will I make it?

At 19:06 I leapt out of the car and immediately joined the back of the pack as they were setting off.  Phew… back in the herd… with no idea where we were heading or what we had planned.

It didn’t take me long to realise that the intermediates had joined with the crazies again… so 10 minutes after arriving home following a very long day with very little sustenance, I was running with the Crazies out past Tesco and up to Malling.  Here we stopped, so our Master, the great leader, explained the evening’s entertainment.  Tagging with a partner around a 1km circuit.  Before we set off he spent a little time explaining the importance of pushing our individual boundaries if we wanted to improve…  how we should try that little bit harder… how running was a personal challenge and that we were all different.  He even draw a couple of virtual circles to re-inforce his point.  It was all useful stuff, but I tried to explain that I had been pushing my boundaries since we left base camp and I now needed a rest… he wasn’t listening.

The objective of this exercise is to run in opposite directions around a circuit and when we meet our partner to ‘tag’, turn around and run back again with the aim to get back at the same time.  In other words, however fast or slow you run the first leg… you have to do the same on the way back.  It’s downhill on the way out… it’s up hill on the way back.  And obviously, for all the Master’s chat about ‘running is all about the individual’, it became competitive.

Twice we did this soddin’ exercise.  The first one was alright… the second and I was really suffering from a lack of energy.  It was quite remarkable… legs had turned to lead, heart was racing, a little bit of dizziness at the end of the stage.   But at least it was now time to head back home.   But wait… the Master decided that we should all run another circuit first… and this was properly competitive.  I didn’t come last… but I wasn’t far off.

At last we set off home… but not the direct route… oh no!  We went the long way back.  Eventually I climbed back into the car having done 5.3 tough, tough miles.   It was the hardest run I’ve done with the club… but it was good to be out there.   

Note to self… eat and drink before I go running.