It’s only a little over 2 years since I ran my first ever 10k in training round the flat streets of Horsham. It took me over an hour, I stopped to walk on several occasions and I felt decidedly rough after I finished. This was the start of training for the London Duathlon an event that involved a 10k run, a 40k bike ride and then a 5k run. It was this event that got me into running as I loved the buzz of pushing myself physically but didn’t enjoy the cycling sections of both the race and training. I felt inspired to see what I could achieve if I focused on one sport.
During the course of 2012 I went from walk/runner in January struggling to complete 6 miles, to running 20 miles in the middle of August in around 3hrs 30 minutes. All it took was time, consistent training and a bit of determination.
Here we are in the present day and things are starting to feel very real in terms of what I’m about to do. In my conscious mind I’m feeling confident. The two anxiety dreams I’ve had in the past week suggests my subconscious is in a very different place, with the latest involving a last mile time of 9hrs that meant I missed the race cut off time and ended up with the dreaded ‘Did Not Finish’ next to my name.
I’m fairly confident my pacer won’t let me slack off to that extent – and to be honest if it’s taking me that long to finish a mile then someone needs to do the kind thing and put me down – but I had a chat with another Ultra Runner recently who told me it took her 5 hrs to finish the last 3 miles of her first 100 mile race so I really have no idea what to expect in the latter stages of the race!
I’ve put everything I could into training in the past 12wks and I’ve had enough now. I’m tapering and thinking about little else but this event. I want to race!
@UltraBevo
ultrabevo@gmail.com