Hi Run Fans,
I talked HERE before about discovering what I needed after a hard week wasn't a lie in until noon. Nope, it was a hard run, with fun people, somewhere beautiful. Preferably with a cool medal at the end.
Well, to put it bluntly, I've been working even fucking harder over the last few weeks.
We have a saying in theatre "The show must go on" Which, if you're a stage manager, means "I'll get this show on, even if it kills me". Recently we've had a serious of mishaps, everything that could break, has; props, set, actors, morale!
But through blood (real and theatrical), sweat, tears, ingenuity and cancelled food breaks/days off, we've kept the show going (with a tonne of help from the technical staff, front of house and actors too). It's the theatrical version of tough mudder. We come upon an obstacle, brace ourselves, overcome it, relax, turn a corner and find an even bigger one. Luckily we haven't been electrocuted yet!
So, 3 days to go. Another frantic phone call, before I've even left for work. Another metaphorical hill to climb.
I click onto the Internet and Google races for the Sunday coming.
Sod the fact I'll be working until midnight before.
Sod the fact that it's my only day off before a new 6 day, mega overtime week, with a new show and new challenges.
I NEED to run.
And there it is. Exactly what I want. The answer to my atheist prayers.
THIS. Women Run Strong. A race up in Macbeth country, next to Birnam wood. WHERE YOU GET JELLY BABIES EN ROUTE AND PROSECCO WHEN YOU FINISH AND YOU CAN UPGRADE TO USE THE SPA!!!!!!
I rush to the Facebook page to check there are space for on the day entries available for the 6 or 11k options. And there I find a challenge I cannot refuse. They are trailing a 21k route for the same price. Private message to see if you can get a space.
Twice as much race for the same price?
A secret gang you have to ask to join?
Being the first to try a new race?
My fingers send the DM before my body had time to consider the commitment.
I talked HERE before about discovering what I needed after a hard week wasn't a lie in until noon. Nope, it was a hard run, with fun people, somewhere beautiful. Preferably with a cool medal at the end.
Well, to put it bluntly, I've been working even fucking harder over the last few weeks.
We have a saying in theatre "The show must go on" Which, if you're a stage manager, means "I'll get this show on, even if it kills me". Recently we've had a serious of mishaps, everything that could break, has; props, set, actors, morale!
But through blood (real and theatrical), sweat, tears, ingenuity and cancelled food breaks/days off, we've kept the show going (with a tonne of help from the technical staff, front of house and actors too). It's the theatrical version of tough mudder. We come upon an obstacle, brace ourselves, overcome it, relax, turn a corner and find an even bigger one. Luckily we haven't been electrocuted yet!
So, 3 days to go. Another frantic phone call, before I've even left for work. Another metaphorical hill to climb.
I click onto the Internet and Google races for the Sunday coming.
Sod the fact I'll be working until midnight before.
Sod the fact that it's my only day off before a new 6 day, mega overtime week, with a new show and new challenges.
I NEED to run.
And there it is. Exactly what I want. The answer to my atheist prayers.
THIS. Women Run Strong. A race up in Macbeth country, next to Birnam wood. WHERE YOU GET JELLY BABIES EN ROUTE AND PROSECCO WHEN YOU FINISH AND YOU CAN UPGRADE TO USE THE SPA!!!!!!
I rush to the Facebook page to check there are space for on the day entries available for the 6 or 11k options. And there I find a challenge I cannot refuse. They are trailing a 21k route for the same price. Private message to see if you can get a space.
Twice as much race for the same price?
A secret gang you have to ask to join?
Being the first to try a new race?
My fingers send the DM before my body had time to consider the commitment.
Cut to 8am Sunday morning.
I've had 6hrs sleep, shaved my legs in a fuzz of sleep deprivation and work based brain smog, hurled on my favourite running togs and packed my very practical ultra running rucksack and terribly impractical "lounging in the spa" swimsuit.
A quick breakfast of pikelets (like crumpets but better) and I'm heading North.
Upon arrival first impressions are very good. Race HQ is a beautiful wedding marquee filled with enthusiastic women and jelly babies. (That sounds more fetishised than it was in reality) I sign up, proudly declaring I'M RUNNING THE NEW TWENTY ONE KILOMETRE RUN and sit near the women with compression socks, camel backs and running caps.
I've learnt over time to identify different types of running people by a quick check of their clothing and behaviour. These were definitely hardy types, long term, long distance runners, out for a decent length trail run.
I once ended up in a half marathon pen with women in tutus and cotton t shirts, carrying selfie sticks, describing how they'd managed to run THE WHOLE OF PARKRUN in training. I spent the first half an hour crashing into chiffon as they suddenly ground to a halt and being hit in the eye by magic wands as I tried to pass them. I did miss their singing later in the race when I found my people, the "try and eat a gel without stopping" people. It transpired I'd accidentally added an hour to my predicted finish time when signing up.
I've had 6hrs sleep, shaved my legs in a fuzz of sleep deprivation and work based brain smog, hurled on my favourite running togs and packed my very practical ultra running rucksack and terribly impractical "lounging in the spa" swimsuit.
A quick breakfast of pikelets (like crumpets but better) and I'm heading North.
Upon arrival first impressions are very good. Race HQ is a beautiful wedding marquee filled with enthusiastic women and jelly babies. (That sounds more fetishised than it was in reality) I sign up, proudly declaring I'M RUNNING THE NEW TWENTY ONE KILOMETRE RUN and sit near the women with compression socks, camel backs and running caps.
I've learnt over time to identify different types of running people by a quick check of their clothing and behaviour. These were definitely hardy types, long term, long distance runners, out for a decent length trail run.
I once ended up in a half marathon pen with women in tutus and cotton t shirts, carrying selfie sticks, describing how they'd managed to run THE WHOLE OF PARKRUN in training. I spent the first half an hour crashing into chiffon as they suddenly ground to a halt and being hit in the eye by magic wands as I tried to pass them. I did miss their singing later in the race when I found my people, the "try and eat a gel without stopping" people. It transpired I'd accidentally added an hour to my predicted finish time when signing up.
15 minutes later we were being briefed. Our über cool race leader was a Marathon de Sable finisher and was running the route for the first time, map in hand. We had a second in command also armed with a map and a third with a rucksack of jelly babies. We were instructed to carry our own water, cheered out of the door and we were off.
It was a warmish day and a hilly route. I settled into place towards the back of the pack, running at conversational pace and getting to know my fellow runners. As usual in small groups, the front runners occasionally sped up and waited for me and my fellow slow pokes at the top of the hills. Ms Marathon de Sable was great at making sure no one was left behind or pushed too far.
Being rather rubbish at countryside navigation I left the directional decisions to the ladies in charge and women who were able to look at the map without turning it upside down to get their bearings. I breathed in the fresh air and marvelled at the beauty of my surroundings. The stress of the week melting away.
We had a fun time. We laughed, we joked, we stopped for pictures hanging out of trees and atop piles of rocks. I ate jelly babies and it turned out there were jelly beans too. I bloody love jelly beans. And they were Haribo!
We even bumped into a group of Dutch cyclists who were over here of a riding holiday. An all male group, jolly sorts, they insisted we have our photo taken with them. We gladly obliged and waved them off into the distance
It was a warmish day and a hilly route. I settled into place towards the back of the pack, running at conversational pace and getting to know my fellow runners. As usual in small groups, the front runners occasionally sped up and waited for me and my fellow slow pokes at the top of the hills. Ms Marathon de Sable was great at making sure no one was left behind or pushed too far.
Being rather rubbish at countryside navigation I left the directional decisions to the ladies in charge and women who were able to look at the map without turning it upside down to get their bearings. I breathed in the fresh air and marvelled at the beauty of my surroundings. The stress of the week melting away.
We had a fun time. We laughed, we joked, we stopped for pictures hanging out of trees and atop piles of rocks. I ate jelly babies and it turned out there were jelly beans too. I bloody love jelly beans. And they were Haribo!
We even bumped into a group of Dutch cyclists who were over here of a riding holiday. An all male group, jolly sorts, they insisted we have our photo taken with them. We gladly obliged and waved them off into the distance
Looking back I suspect that we were distracted by the cyclists. Right in the middle of the run, we were in our stride and plunged onwards, joyous that it was finally downhill.
It wasn't until a few miles later that we ground to a halt. The right turn we were looking for didn't seem to bewhere it should be......it must be the one ahead....that would be it...right?
We all looked at the maps and pondered where we might be. My GPS on Strava was no help as it didn't show up the trails and paths. It was getting much hotter and I was running out of water. We'd run over 11 miles and were expecting to be back in another 2.....but that didn't look likely. Finally we came to a road that showed up on my GPS........a mere 5 miles off course.
Oops!
Everyone was hot and tired and a some a bit worried about the extra distance they hadn't trained for. We studied the map and it seemed that it would be an 18 mile run instead of 13 (ouch) if we took the main road. But we could keep it to 16 if we found the right trail halfway down aforementioned road.
Okay. We could do this. We were a team right?
All was well until we took the wrong trail....again....and ran up a hill in the wrong direction! Tempers flared and a member of the group tried to run off on her own via the road, to ensure she got back without "RUNNING UP ANY HILLS I DONT NEED TO".
Now in a crisis in the wilderness some people try to gain control by breaking free of the group, some try to insist everyone stays together, some stay silent to keep the peace.....
Me.....I was bloody thirsty. I went into a farmhouse and asked a stranger for water! He kindly obliged, whilst trying to work out how to send a text, you couldn't write this kind of thing.
I don't know what happened while I was in the farmhouse but when I returned we were all saying as one group, and had eschewed the notion of getting picked up once we reached our 13 mile target. We were doing all 16 miles, at the pace of the slowest member of our group and if that meant walking, so be it. Excellent. I was in. That's my kind of run. No woman left behind.
Plus an excuse to walk the hills. Huzzah!
It wasn't until a few miles later that we ground to a halt. The right turn we were looking for didn't seem to bewhere it should be......it must be the one ahead....that would be it...right?
We all looked at the maps and pondered where we might be. My GPS on Strava was no help as it didn't show up the trails and paths. It was getting much hotter and I was running out of water. We'd run over 11 miles and were expecting to be back in another 2.....but that didn't look likely. Finally we came to a road that showed up on my GPS........a mere 5 miles off course.
Oops!
Everyone was hot and tired and a some a bit worried about the extra distance they hadn't trained for. We studied the map and it seemed that it would be an 18 mile run instead of 13 (ouch) if we took the main road. But we could keep it to 16 if we found the right trail halfway down aforementioned road.
Okay. We could do this. We were a team right?
All was well until we took the wrong trail....again....and ran up a hill in the wrong direction! Tempers flared and a member of the group tried to run off on her own via the road, to ensure she got back without "RUNNING UP ANY HILLS I DONT NEED TO".
Now in a crisis in the wilderness some people try to gain control by breaking free of the group, some try to insist everyone stays together, some stay silent to keep the peace.....
Me.....I was bloody thirsty. I went into a farmhouse and asked a stranger for water! He kindly obliged, whilst trying to work out how to send a text, you couldn't write this kind of thing.
I don't know what happened while I was in the farmhouse but when I returned we were all saying as one group, and had eschewed the notion of getting picked up once we reached our 13 mile target. We were doing all 16 miles, at the pace of the slowest member of our group and if that meant walking, so be it. Excellent. I was in. That's my kind of run. No woman left behind.
Plus an excuse to walk the hills. Huzzah!
So.....drumroll.......WE FINISHED!
We weren't fast
We weren't great at navigating
We did make mistakes
But we were strong. And safe. And we finished together.
And at the end of the day (it was quite late by the time we got back!) that was what really mattered.
That and being greeted by a cheering crowd and a tray of PROSECCO!
Now all there was to do was relax.
I rewarded myself with 4 cups of tea, a chocolate eclair and 2 hours in the spa. If this was an option after every race I'd make it standard practice!
And as I lay in the jacuzzi for the fourth time I had to admit.
Yes. This was better than a lie in.
We weren't fast
We weren't great at navigating
We did make mistakes
But we were strong. And safe. And we finished together.
And at the end of the day (it was quite late by the time we got back!) that was what really mattered.
That and being greeted by a cheering crowd and a tray of PROSECCO!
Now all there was to do was relax.
I rewarded myself with 4 cups of tea, a chocolate eclair and 2 hours in the spa. If this was an option after every race I'd make it standard practice!
And as I lay in the jacuzzi for the fourth time I had to admit.
Yes. This was better than a lie in.