Another 10K and a new PB clocked up at the weekend. I took 40 seconds off my previous time but suffered for it. From half way I had to stop about five times for a 20 second walking break because my legs couldn’t keep up with the rest of my body. It wasn’t fun and for most of the last four kilometers I was questioning why I’d put myself through it again.

The race wasn’t completely without its highlights though. As I approached the 8km mark a guy ran up alongside me and said ‘Excuse me, how long have you been running for?’ ‘Oh, about a year now’, was my reply. ‘No I meant today – my watch has stopped.’

There was me thinking he was after a bit of friendly chat, but in fact he wanted to know if he was on for finishing in under an hour. It made me chuckle for a good few meters before I went back to thinking about how much my legs hurt though, and it did show me that I had enough breath to hold a short conversation… which was more than could be said for the person behind me.

For about a kilometer I could hear someone running right behind me who was panting like a dog on a hot summer’s day. Obviously they had my lungs and I had their legs or vice versa – my breathing and heart rate seemed OK but my legs just wouldn’t carry me, while this person was clearly having the opposite problem. There is a reason why I was nicknamed sparrow-legs at school.

Other than that, the run was quite boring. No man with buggy, heavily pregnant woman or soldier with massive rucksack to ponder whether I would beat them or not. There was also not much support from locals. There was the odd group of people that had turned out along the route to cheer on their loved ones – it would have been nice if they’d had a few extra cheers for everyone else while they waited for their nearest and dearest to go past. After all,  they’re there by the roadside, they’ve got hands and there’s not too much of a risk of them running out of claps before their auntie, brother, mother, friend jogs up. Come on people – share the love!

Back at my desk with aching legs today I’m ready to sign-up for a half marathon. I’m already rationalising the pain as being down to running too fast at a lightening 9 minutes per mile pace instead of my usual, steady 10 minutes per mile and lack of preparation. Now if only I can train harder and run slower the half marathon should be a breeze!