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Four years ago, less than nine months after losing my testicle,
I ran the Knebworth Half Marathon. I had got super fit and got round the hilly course in under two hours.
There was no pressure though. I was running alone (if you discounted the hundreds of other people) and wasn't being sponsored. I just wanted to get a longer run in and this was a good way to do that without just giving up. I find it hard to do the longer runs alone or to keep up a decent pace. I'd been lucky with that half Marathon to have my friend and personal trainer taking me out on long Sunday runs and setting a decent pace for me.
Was I being hubristic to step forward when the announcer asked for the people who were aiming for a sub-hour run? Probably. But I don't think they police it. I wasn't going to get into trouble if I lagged behind the pace.
Just like four years ago I set off too fast, unable to resist the lure of the opening downhill section. Because I was so fit and so fired up last time I don't think I had noticed that the next kilometre is on a pretty steep hill. I noticed this time and as my Runna app told me my pace was already too slow to hit the hour mark, I even wondered if I'd have the energy to get round.
The good bit about a hilly run is that, unless you're pretty unlucky, there are some downhill bits too and once I'd recovered from that first (and most challenging) hill, I got into a nice flow and was back on pace, at least for now. I thought of the exhilaration of doing that half marathon so soon after my cancer. I had been so full of energy for the first part of that run and when I'd seen my family had scooped Ernie up into my arms and run with him for a little bit. I didn't have those levels of energy and thought about how much more difficult it would be to lift him four years on. That half-Marathon had been miraculous and was such an important goal for me that year. This 10K was just a Sunday run, though if I could go sub 60 minutes then that would feel like a victory.
I got halfway in around about the same time it had taken me to run the Hitchin 5k (which was not very hilly). Would I really be able to do the second half at the same speed?
It turned out I could. I found myself sprinting the last 50 metres and getting over the line in 59 minutes (or one second less according to one of my timers- will have to wait for the official results before I know the accurate time). Very pleased with that.
I am as pleased as you are bored to have to read this. Not all of this blog is for you.
I thought I might be fucked for the rest of the day and was stiff when I got out of the car at home and slightly pulled a muscle in my leg and hobbled through the door.
I had a hot bath which made me a bit light-headed (my mum will now tell me that a bath is the most dangerous part of exercise) and so had a lie-down and a little snooze. I might still be able to run a sub 59 minute 10K at 58, but maybe it would take a day or two to recover.
As it happened once I got up I was full of energy for the rest of the day and did a couple of dog walks and got the kids to bed and stayed up signing books for kickstarter donors.
Who would have thought exercise could do you good?
It's worth nothing that four years ago I ran 22km in 1hr55, but let's not detract from my achievement.
I may be an old man with a neck vagina (though maybe the run helped counteract that as it's gone for now) but I can still run for 10km at under 6 mins a km.
Though a bath may kill me.
