OK, slight delay in the writing of this (I blame it on the fact that it has taken me until now to recover sufficiently to type!)…
Last Saturday (22nd September) saw the running of the Page Cup, which is a smudge under 5 miles (4.96 to be precise) over a cross country course in Richmond Park. In fact the course is the same as the one we ran in July for the Coad Cup - where I managed to get lost. I didn’t this time though, though I almost wished I had.
It was surprisingly hot and I had run a slow BPTT in the morning. This race is handicapped and after my last (not too bad) performance, I was starting even later so I knew I had my work cut out to catch people. I went off *way* too fast and paid the price. At about 3 miles, I thought I was going to pass out and had to stop to put my head between my knees. It’s the first time in a race I thought I was going to have to retire - but I couldn’t bear the thought of “DNF” next to my name…
Naturally my stubborn streak took over and I finished the race (with the longest slightly hilly, never-ending-corner-y 0.8 miles to the end!) in 18th place. I didn’t get any points towards the points prize for the end of the year and I was quite upset that I lost out in the last couple of hundred metres by being overtaken by a few people. My legs just wouldn’t go any faster and when I crossed the line I had to just sit - which was the worst thing I could do. I drunk my life-saving banana milkshake and eventually managed to get up and moving again. The good thing about the race? I got a course PB by over 7 minutes (in real running terms by about 5 minutes I think, as I lost a couple of minutes getting lost the last time I ran the course). The other good thing? The lovely support from David (who wisely decided not to run this race!), Kirsty and Danny, it’s really nice to have some friendly faces as you struggle around. The bad thing? Well, the next event in the Spring it’s 2 laps of this tough course, not sure that will be the most fun I have ever had.
Sunday night saw me doing a very gentle run at Richmond Park (deer and all, which David has already blogged about), which I was pleased about as I didn’t think my legs would work after the Page Cup race…
David’s photos from the race can be found at our photography website.