I’ve been musing, pondering and wondering about doing a really epic run.
Take a look at this blurb from the Race To The Stones website:
“Follow the footsteps of Vikings, Romans, dragons and kings. Journey from the Chilterns to the mystical North Wessex Downs past mighty iron age forts, ancient monuments and through some of Britain’s most stunning landscapes. A 5000 year trek back in time.”
It sounds amazing doesn’t it?
The full race is 100km long along the Ridgeway, the oldest trackway in Britain. That’s the one that I’d really like to do but possibly I should scale it back a bit. There is an option to just do the part 2 section of the course so should I? Could I? Many times I began the sign up process only to quit at the final pay now moment. Once I sign up I am also committing to a long hard winter of training in the wind, the rain and the snow.
Do I really want to do that to myself?
I finally decided that I didn’t want to do that to myself but I would just bloody well have to if I wanted to make this fantasy a reality. I want this experience and the pain of getting there will be part of what makes it so extraordinary. My plan is to start with the 50k and if I manage to stagger over the finish line then maybe, just maybe, 100k might seem like something I could do.
However, before the race must come the long hard months of training so I’d better put on my running gear and get out there and put in the miles.
But it’s raining.
Get out there you wuss.
And so I did.
I’ve slackened off a little recently and put on a good deal of weight. I am over a stone heavier than when I ran the London Marathon and I was no waif back then. Thinking about this (because I do make a habit of torturing myself) I imagined putting 7 bags of sugar into a bag and wearing it around my waist. It seems a ridiculous thing to have done to oneself but I really do enjoy a nice curry and it seems I have had several.
I have still been doing regular weekend runs and decided that today it would be a good idea to increase my Sunday run from the usual 10k up to around 13 or so. That would seem to be a sensible increase for the long run.
Running into the village of Histon the persistent rain became a little less persistent and I started to feel substantially more relaxed and happy. It was one of those special moments when you realise that this is going to be a good run.
A goose on the green at Histon was unimpressed with my efforts and fronted up to me like a street thug with a flicknife. I bravely turned away and ran across the road, and the goose, satisfied with its thuggery, waddled off to have a good bragging session with the rest of the goose gang.
I continued through the village to the roadway that leads on toward the busway. There was someone up ahead walking and so I moved out to the edge of the path ready to overtake. I looked up some time later and she was still quite a long way in front of me. How snail-like must be my pace if I am taking such an age to pass by. Are there snails watching from the edge of the path putting bets on whether they could take me in a 100 yard dash? I do eventually pass her and try to convince myself that actually she was walking really quickly.
At the far edge of Histon before I reached the busway I spotted openings out into a field. Aha thinks I. Race to the Stones is going to have lots of uneven surfaces. Let’s try some. It takes rather more concentration running on this kind of terrain as you leap over tree roots and splash through puddles but it is more interesting than the constant plod along the pavement. I realise that I am also going to have to find some hills during my training. As I live on the edge of the Fens this might be somewhat challenging.
Paths lead on to paths but eventually I am drawn inexorably toward the busway which cuts right through this landscape and provides an extremely useful connection between the villages. I hop on to it and and am soon roaming around in far flung exotic locations such as Westwick and Oakington. Wild times indeed.
I realise that I am now quite some distance from home and am going to exceed my mileage or kilometreage target for the morning. As I haven’t brought any nutrition with me then maybe this might become a problem. Everything feels fine for now but I have experienced a nutrition crash previously and it wasn’t pretty. Turning back for home I encounter a shop in Histon. I don’t really know what the best thing to buy is to maintain these mysterious electrolytes that the running fraternity bang on about but I seem to remember a doctor insisting that drinking Lucozade and gels was just the thing when I was suffering at the end of the London Marathon. Grabbing a lucozade I topped up with whatever it might contain (from the taste I would guess that it’s mostly sugar). I don’t know whether this helped but I got home after 18 kilometres and felt absolutely fine.
The journey has begun…
Save The Rhino – I am of course doing this Race To The Stones entirely for my own selfish reasons but I would also love it to be of benefit to others, so I’d be delighted if you could donate money for Save The Rhino International at my JustGiving page here:
