Wednesday 18th February
Run #49
5k Round Richmond
There are some runs
that just aren't going to be very blog-worthy, on account of there really not
being much to set them apart (I have already blogged far too many of these in
minutiae detail already!) This one was just an average run on one of those days
that just aren't going your way.
I took all my kit to
work to fit in a runch and free up my evening. But over email in the morning M
and I arranged that we'd run together after work so - true to form - I just
worked through lunch. Sometimes a runch is the only way I manage to get away from
my desk. But then, by end of day, M had
been detained at work and emailed to say he wasn't going to make it after all.
So far from the free evening I'd projected, I got home, and into my kit.
In the grand scheme of
how disastrous the day had been (a hat-trick of drinks spilt across my desk, a
spreadsheet of vital and practically unrecreatable work just disappearing,
walking into any door handle or table corner that deigned to get in my way…) the
run was issue free. Probably a little less recovery-paced that it could have
been, but this was more a get-it-done-run than a savour the moment run.
So instead of
belabouring the run I'm going to writ about 2 fantastic races I entered today
and which I am very excited about:
First and most
importantly the Richmond
Running Festival. Quite possibly my all-time favourite race and run by some
of the most fabulous enthusiastic running people: @Tom_Bedford and @JadeParker86. 2015 will be its 3rd
year and I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Tom and Jade will be
pulling out all the stops to top even the awesomeness of 2014. While M ran, I
volunteered in year one (some intensive TNT-loading bag logistics in some
pretty grey drizzle from me and the bag team. But not one bag lost or
unclaimed, ahhhthangyoovehrymuch. And also where I met the indomitable @dominikabrooks) it being before
I was a runner. Seriously, I did not run at all. Ever. I hadn't in fact run for
almost a decade and would look incredulous at anyone who suggested I could. But
more of that in another post) Last year I ran it and had an absolute blast. Aiming
for anything under 1 hour for the 10k but secretly hoping and training for
sub-58min, I came in at 54:17. A time I have neither broken, nor come
particularly close to since. I truly think this was down to the 'festival
effect' and how much Goddam fun I was having. So I'm well up for trying to
break that this year. Not to mention the medal might in fact be one of the coolest ever AND incorporates a bottle opener. Is there a better medal? I think not. So September 6th is firmly in the diary.
The second race I
signed up for today is the Nike Women's 10k in
Victoria Park in June. Waaaay back when I first used to run, in the early
2-thou's, it was the Nike 10k 'Run
London' series that got me there. The Richmond park one they did in 2003
was my first EVER race. And I had a blast in subsequent years in the 'Go
Nocturnal' and 'North Vs South' that I even managed to get my mum running in
with me (Go Team South-Of-The-River!). But 2005 was the last one with a 'run
the year' with the Nike+. And I have thought back with nostalgia on the ones I
did
So the
prospect of a new Nike 10k is interesting. But I am reserving judgement so far:
It's a testament to the juggernaut of commercialism that is Nike that they will
have no trouble getting to 10,000 capacity, at almost £30 a place, without
telling you anything about the race at all: The route has yet to be released,
details are still being finalised - they can't even tell me yet if there will
be a finisher's medal (anyone who knows me will tell you that I pretty much
ONLY race for the medal and a run has to offer something pretty darn special
for me to bother with no promise of a bit of bling on a promo ribbon). But, off
the back of never having run a bad Nike event, I, and probably 9,999 other
women are happy to pay the fee and wait and see.
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