(scratching around for a blogpost title of a potted catchup of the past week…)
Having had a banging headache all day this is a bit later than planned (and probably sounds a bit jaded). I did try going into the office but trying to look at a screen was too painful, even with sunglasses. Consequently I haven’t taken enough meds today and typing this is…challenging. (Apologies for the typos). [update: it’s really frustrating with the tremor causing multiple duplications both of letters and deletions. The original title was 51 days…]
It’s been an interesting week. I went for a long run on Friday 13th, in the knowledge that the weather would be biblical, and it lived up to expectations. The run turned into a walk, with the footpath churned into a chalk stream and so slippery that anything faster than a plod left me skating like Bambi. Having fallen over on the last three runs I had no desire to add to that total. Eventually the rain stopped and the stars came out. I tried taking a video during the rain but the phone didn’t want to know! I did get to share some of the path with a badger as it headed into the woods at Kingley Vale.
I ran on the Friday because I was due my covid and flu jab on Saturday and I left the weekend training free just in case of a reaction. Good move, as with a jab in each arm, they got more painful as the hours progressed and also left me feeling flattened. I dragged myself down into Portsmouth on Sunday morning for the Great South Run. I was stationed at a spot near the charities corner (and their sound systems), Power Up Station (and its sound system) and the Batala drummers. It wasn’t quiet!
It was a lovely sunny morning for a run, and it was fun marshalling the lemmings (sorry, locals) as they tried to cross the road, sometimes when there was actually a gap between runners. It was also great to catch up with some friends who were helping out too.
The rest of the week was spent trying to fight off the effects of the jabs at work, and on Saturday was a trip to the Centurion Running shop for the final bits of kit for the long run in December (fundraising link here: https://app.collectionpot.com/pot/puckfarkinsons200/). The shop is excellent, and I made the most of the free tea, coffee and homemade flapjack!
After a 4 hour round trip (thanks to the A3/M25 roadworks) it was off for a run as I needed to get the legs moving again and keep practicing with the race gear to reduce time spent faffing, such as with putting on overtrousers etc. whilst wrangling the rucksack.
The rain had left the tracks near me a little damp…
The run to QE and back turned into a bit of an upper body workout too, with a large tree across the path meaning that I had to do some climbing.
Sunday was a quick bimble with Willow around QE, and a chat with Budgie over coffee and cake about our recce of the southern section of the Vanguard way this weekend. That just leaves the section at the start between Juniper Hall and the North Downs Way to check over as some reports say the route is a bit “vague”!
Owen Delany has produced another classic “map” for Centurion Running – to give you an idea of the route:
Great photo in the dark. Extra challenging negotiating trees and badgers on slippery paths!! The running shop looks interesting. Hope the headache is gone this morning. I still can’t get my head around that running distance. Good luck with the rest of your training and preparations.