It’s raining in Cranleigh, and we have had a lot over the last few days.
This deluge means my usual “railway line” walk is a bit on the muddy side! I have changed my walk to use the pavements of Cranleigh instead.
This morning I walked 5k; I know this distance because some years’ ago Martin mapped it out for me.
It was the first year that we sponsored the Jigsaw Trust Run at Dunsfold Park (taking place again this year on Sunday 22nd November 2020).
In the first year, it was a 5k run, and it is now a 10k run – that’s inflation for you I guess!
Martin, cruelly in my view because he knows how competitive I am, told me I should join in the run and it didn’t matter if I walked the 5k and came last!!
So I started to train for the run and not having run since I gave up competitive football some 30 years earlier it was hard work indeed.
It took weeks for me to get to the point where I could run the whole distance without stopping. I usually trained early in the morning, or in the evening, when it was dark and fewer people would come across this puffing creature!
The day of the run dawned very cold and very sunny. As I was putting on my trainers at the back of my car, a couple of young women looked at me and smiling asked if I was going to do the run, cheeky!
I can’t say I enjoyed it.
Running the length of a runway was pretty soul-destroying, it seemed never-ending, but there was no way I was going to stop.
I got into my stride and pretty soon found myself making progress.
Eventually, I saw the finish line ahead of me and surprising both family and colleagues alike; I finished a credible 37th out of a field of +100 runners in a time of 27 minutes.
As I walked around my training route this morning, it bought those memories flooding back. This morning though I walked and as I am quite a fast walker I finished in just over 40 minutes.
I never intend to run that far again; it hurts unless of course, someone puts a football in front of me as a form of motivation!!
