Taking On Too Much

If last year was my dip into the world of running, then this year is all about entering races-10Ks at first and who knows where that will lead? Last month I had four lined up and as I signed up for them I was hoping I hadn’t overdone it. When I find a hobby I love, I always do this.

With an increase in running frequency and duration there’s always a greater chance of suffering some sort of injury. The thing is with me I don’t tend to suffer many muscular injuries but I do always get more respiratory infections. And the last one was goddamn awful. Granted I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and picked up a nasty strain of flu virus that was just about doing the rounds in UK and honestly I am still in shock about how bad I succumbed. I don’t think any part of me escaped being affected in some way but it did force me to make a decision as I lay coughing my lungs up and clutching on to my chest to try and minimise the pain. I vowed to find out if there was anything I could do to stop being floored by these things. 

But first I had some races to get through. So how was I preparing? 

I honestly have a ball running with my girlfriends in Cyprus. Three times a week we run 5K then head to a cafe for hot chocolate with marshmallows or iced drinks depending. Reluctantly I realised that however much fun this was, it was not going to get me ready for a bunch of 10Ks.

I had to go it alone. And here’s the thing-do you just run 5K and love it and all the social stuff? Cos once you aim for more you gain the excitement of progress but you lose something too.

So I headed out by myself. One day I ran 6K and two days later, 8K. 

With no training plan at all I just kept nudging up the distance. After a few weeks I pushed myself to aim for 15K and I so nearly made it. I reached 14.5K and suddenly felt incredibly sick. Hands on knees and dry heaving into the nearest hedgerow, I realised that nothing was forthcoming and sat on a nearby rock quickly feeling shivery and lightheaded. I hadn’t eaten before I came out ( I never do) but maybe I should have? Next time I’m going to take a couple of jelly sweets or maybe a date. I didn’t carry a drink with me either; it was a coolish day and I thought I could hang on til I’d finished. I honestly haven’t found the best way to carry water yet; I don’t like carrying it by hand-it’s amazing how heavy and awkward a little plastic bottle becomes after 10K-so I’ll try one of those water bottle waistbands next. I don’t run far enough yet to think about investing in a hydration vest. That would be overkill, a bit like the time I won a blogpost completion run by Berghaus. They sent me an enormous rucksack to test out and I wandered up and down Bournemouth prom with the thing clinging to my head, back and half my legs. People were asking:

“Ooo are you going far?”

“No. Just to the pier”

As a sweetener for having entered the Cyprus Logicom Marathon (10K bit for me) I’d registered for a wine run around the village of Kathikas. It’s hilly and I was so blasé when I entered I didn’t even know how long it was and the distance was worryingly missing from the info email. (It turned out to be 5K).

The morning of the race broke with a bang. Literally. Roaring thunder and the heaviest rain we’d seen for a while. Weather patterns here can change in a heartbeat though so I set off, windscreen wipers working overtime. The road to the vineyard was a flowing stream of water… I did feel for the organisers; what a great idea to offer a wine run to entrants of the Cyprus Marathon and associated distances. A fun jaunt around the vines, a bottle of wine at the finish line then a wine tasting with plates of nibbles. As I entered the winery the mood was really upbeat, runners just accepting that there’s nothing anyone can do about the weather. One chap was obviously a bit peeved;

‘I didn’t come all the way from bloody Manchester for this.’

Next up I’ll be pounding along the coast in Limassol 🙂