Oh no! Now I'll have to do some training!

Over the last year I have often been seen at my local parkrun. Not on the start line, you understand, but cheering on my training partners or runners that I coach. I would often combine it with an off road run around the park. Then one rainy Saturday morning in the middle of last month I jogged over to do my usual shouting people on and, on arriving, I received the usual "stick" from the runners I know ...."Come on, get on the start line, you know you want to!". I would normally laugh this off and wave at them with two fingers as I disappear away from the track to my favourite vantage point but on this particular day I really didn't want to run through the mud and slutch through the sodden woodlands and so I surprised everyone, especially myself, and put myself on the start line!

I ran round at what I felt was a comfortable training pace, being careful not to slip in my trail shoes, on the wet tarmaced corners and ended up with a handicap score of 15.3! I was starting to get interested! One month later I decided to go and do it again. This time I would put on appropriate lightweight shoes and do a proper warm up. I was sure to smash that time and that handicap score. Off I went on my progressive warm up with a few dynamic drills thrown in for good measure. I got myself on the start line and when the gun went I was focused on running fast. I really tried. I got to the finish and was eager to see how much I'd knocked off my time. Well I can tell you that it was a full THREE seconds!! Big deal!!

Like all runners who are disappointed with their performance I went away to analyse what went wrong. Well it's not difficult to see. You can put your lightweight shoes on, you can do a decent warm up but - you know what - if you ain't done the training you won't run any faster! By the way, this took my handicap score to 14.0

Last Saturday I went back again. I didn't hold out much hope. I'd really tried the previous time and it didn't pay off so I decided that I'd go back to the former tactics of running around comfortably. I did a bit of a warm up and I did wear decent shoes but as the starter sent us on our way I went off at a comfortable canter. I'd been running for around half a mile when it happened....another female who had finished in front of me at my last attempt came up on my shoulder and cruised past. Mmmm...I remembered this girl. I remembered that she hadn't been very good at keeping her pace going when we got to the top of the hill on each lap (of which there are two). I remembered that I almost caught her on the top of the hill on the second lap last time but it was quite close to the finish and she had another gear to shift into and get away from me again. I wondered if I could keep with her on the first lap and then I might be able to put the boot in when she backed off at the top of the hill on the first lap. Then I would have enough time to get a big enough gap to last me through to the end. I stopped wondering and started putting the plan into action. I shifted up a gear and stuck on her shoulder, I even sneaked in front a little way on a downhill bit before the uphill. She came past me on the climb. She is pretty good going uphill but once we got to the top it was just as I hoped. She seemed to hit a brick wall and I worked hard off the top of the hill. After that I didn't look back, I just kept working all the way through the second lap and into the finish. I looked at my watch as I went over the line and saw that I'd knocked 30 seconds off! It's amazing what a bit of competition can do! (By the way, she finished close to the time she did last time.)

The only trouble is that I'm going to have to do some training now! I can't keep knocking chunks like that off without the training. I'm now on a handicap score of 12.9 and am seriously thinking of trying to get into single figures....mmmm now where are those training programmes I've written? Time for me to practice what I preach!