Juenathon Day 6

I'm pretty glad I didn't go to speed training on Tuesday. I spent most of the day feeling as though I had a head full of cotton wool and pretty low on energy levels. Not good when you know you've got a 6 mile run later in the day that you're not sure you're prepared enough for. I found myself eating liquorice at 9:30 in the morning in an attempt to perk my self up.

 

I was meant to be running with a friend from work, Anita. We ran together at the Frimley 10k back in May and ever since she's been suffering from shin pain. She reckons it's shin splints but given she stopped running and it seems to be most of the time I reckon she should get scanned for stress fractures. She went from not running to doing 4/4.5 miles four or five times a week at least in preparation for her wedding. I had shin splints once and they were nowhere near as bad as she is describing. So unfortunately she didn't run with me tonight.

 

This is the first of 3 runs at Yateley, held every summer on the first Wednesday of June, July and August. I did the August one two years ago and won a spot prize (probably for looking so knackered) and I'm really looking forward to doing all three this year. Anita signed up for runs 1 and 3 so I really hope she's better for the third one. I'm starting to really enjoy running with other people.

 

There were big black clouds in the sky all day but the weather held and we even got some sun in the evening. I met up with some of the Farnham Runners and decided I'd try and pace one of them who was aiming for a sub hour which would have been brilliant for me but I lost her around 3k when I started to feel really sick and had to stop for a moment. The rest of the course consisted of running to a km marker, having a short walk break then running to the next one. As I rounded the corner back into the school I heard someone yell out "Go on Vikki, you can do it!" and Ian, the FR who has been coaching the beginners and always shouts encouragement at parkrun, was there. Bless him, that moment meant so much to me. I knew I was the last FR to cross the line and I feel pretty bad about that, I know I can do so much better. I've got times to beat and the opportunity to train better.

 

I finished in 1:06:43, got my medal and a mini milkyway and popped over to Anita's for a cuppa.