Week 7 – 12 weeks to go!
I haven’t run in snow since the 2006 Eastbourne 1/2 Marathon. On that January morning I remember sitting in the car in a car park watching the snow driving down and thinking “what on earth am I doing here getting ready to go out in this?”. At least, on that occasion, there were a few thousand others thinking the same and I had a mate to run with. Last Sunday, however, was a lone 2 hour 20 minute slog up and down the hills around Goodwood in bitter conditions.
As crazy as it sounds, though, the extreme cold and the knowledge that I was attempting a hill that I’d not tried before made it an exciting challenge. Watching the first set of the Austalian Open tennis final as I had breakfast did not help, as it was both a great match and played in really hot conditions. Nonetheless, in some ways I couldn’t wait to get out and face the inevitable hardship. For the cold becomes an enemy; the hill becomes an oponent. This helps to overcome the boredom and gives you an incentive to continue. Knowing that I can get through this will give me that all important confidence on the morning of the London Marathon. I will know that training runs such as this will have been completed and when I cross the finish line I will know that it will all have been worthwhile.
Having said that, it was not an entirely pleasurable experience. At times the freezing wind really took the breath from me and the new hill was every bit as hard as I’d imagined. Luckilly my clothing etc withstood the challenge from the elements and my core body temperature was fine…just the cheeks and nose that got the brunt of the icy chill. It looks like the weather is set for the week, so another one to look forward to next weekend, just one week before the Tunbridge Wells 1/2 Marathon. An important staging post to measure how well the training is going. I’ll let you know how it goes!
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